Konoha's Crimson Dancer
by PlaguedAmbition
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko is filled with hate and malice, he has suffered through his childhood, when he gets his partner will this change or will it only amplify and turn him into what he holds?
1. Prologue

**PA: Hey guys this story idea kind of just came to me, it is going to be a little strange, maybe even a little wacky but maybe just maybe it will become something good one day, haha anyway here is the intro chapter.**

Summary: Uzumaki Naruto the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko is filled with hate and malice, he has suffered through his childhood, when he gets his partner will this change or will it only amplify and turn him into what he holds?

* * *

Namikaze Minato the fourth Hokage of Konoha stood atop of his toad summon staring down the demon fox known as The Kyuubi no Yoko. His blonde hair shifting in the wind, slowly he brought his right hand up to move it out of his vision and grimaced at the sounds of fires tearing through his once peaceful village.

"Minato-kun look out." He saw what she was talking about and jumped off of the toad narrowly dodging a fireball, He looked over to his partner with a small smile, Karatsu, the red headed woman gave a bright smile at seeing him unharmed. "Kara-chan is Kushina ok?" The redhead gave a quick nod and vanished in a red flash, reappearing a moment later holding Kushina and their child.

"Kushi-chan, I need you to be strong here, summon Shinzu we are going to need him to seal the Kyuubi." His voice was soft and his heart tore in two when he saw the hurt run through her face.

"Y-you can't do that, not to our boy." Not noticing that her grip had tightened around the boy she woke him with the added pressure causing him to start crying, her eyes stayed strong and held back the tears that threatened to fall as she glared at her husband.

"Kushina I have no choice, Kyuubi will destroy the village otherwise, we both know Naruto is the only one that can hold him at bay, your clans chakra was always special." Kushina just shook her head and her eyes gave way.

"I can't believe you, you would damn you own son, you know how they are treated." Minato held up a hand to stop her.

"You don't have a say, I have already left a note to Hiruzen, he will look after the boy. JUST SUMMON SHINZU." Kushina gulped in an attempt to stop herself from lashing out and summoned her partner Shinzu, a man clad in white robes formed floating in the air next to her, he took one look at the Kyuubi and sighed.

"Kushina-chan what would you ask of me?" His eyes darted around and took in the burning village, the battle toad, Minato and Karatsu, it was not looking good.

"Minato wants to seal Kyuubi into Naruto, tell him how bad of an idea that is!" Shinzu looked at Minato who had a hard glare on his face daring him to say it while Kushina was letting out small sobs and stroking her child.

"In the interest of Konoha it is a good idea, but Minato-san are you really ready to damn your own child, if so you are not the man I thought you were. The village is not the only important thing here." Shinzu looked over to the small bundle in Kushina's arms and ran one of his hands against the childs face a small smile as a tear fell from his eyes, he already knew what was going to happen.

"As Hokage the village comes first, above everything else." Minato erected a barrier around them and the Kyuubi as he summoned the sealing crib. "Now help me or I will take him from you."

Kushina struggled in Karatsu's hold, the next thing she knew she was falling to the ground, she looked around and could not find Naruto, she turned to look up and saw him in Karatsu's arms, said redhead was giving her a sad smile.

There was a sickening crack as Kushina hit the ground, Shinzu turned his head away and glared at Minato. "I hope you never get a moment of peace where you are going, I hope you will become the Shinigami's plaything for centuries to come, she loved you and your child, I am going to say what she couldn't before you had Karatsu kill her, I HATE YOU." Shinzu felt himself start to fade and flashed in front of the Kyuubi.

"Please take it easy on him Akane, you saw how much of a bastard his father was, I am sorry you have to be sealed again." Something flashed through the foxes eyes before it swept at Shinzu causing him to dissipate in the air, Minato dropping softly to the ground with the help of Karatsu.

"Bunta keep the fox of my back."

"You are an ass you know that."

"JUST DO IT BUNTA." The boss of the toads shook his head in shame but held the fox at bay while Minato finished his ritual. Minato slammed his hands on the ground and marveled at how large the sealing area was, he felt a sharp pain go through his gut and down to see a purple hand sticking out of him, he knew he had pulled it off, he gave a sharp glare to the Kyuubi who started to back up and wail.

He dragged his feet forward and stood above the crib where Naruto lay. "You will be a hero my boy, I am sorry about your kaa-san but it had to be done, I hope you will forgive me later." He let out a small sniffle and finished the ritual placing his hands against his sons stomach, the Kyuubi let out a mighty roar as it started to shrink in size before being fully absorbed into Naruto.

Minato could feel his body growing cold he looked up and let out a small laugh as it started to rain. "Well I guess it is time for me to leave here, I hope I don't see you where I am going my son, have a good life and remember I will be proud of you no matter what happens." He brushed his bang off to the side and his body fell back, but he didn't hit the ground he hit something soft instead, his now blurry eyes slowly opened and was met by his partner. "Kara-chan, I guess I kind of took you for granted." He tried to raise a hand to cup her cheek but it just would not move. "I am out of time Kara-chan, I feel honored that you were my partner. I..."

Karatsu brought a hand up to his face and brushed his bang out of the way. "Baka, I am the one that should feel honored." She was glad that it was raining, she had promised to never let him see her cry again, the barrier around them fell to the ground and his breathing stopped, she felt her life slipping away and looked to see shinobi running towards them.

Hiruzen saw Karatsu fading away and knew it was already to late, he looked and saw Kushina laying dead on the ground, he heard the wailing of a child and saw the tiny blonde laying in the crib small whisker marks on his cheeks. "Sir Yondaime-sama has sealed the fox into this infant child, we should kill the Kyuubi while it is weak." The Anbu raised it's dagger to end the child but Hiruzen cut off his head.

He frowned as he saw the glares the child was getting, he would not be able to follow through with Minato's wishes. "From this moment forward any talk of Naruto being a Jinjuriki is punishable by death as it is now an S-rank secret." He watched as the shinobi around him gritted their teeth both nodded anyway, what Hiruzen said was law now.

"Hokage-sama, I wish to adopt the boy." The old now Kage again Hiruzen looked at the silver tuft of hair next to him known as Kakashi, he saw the small dog resting on his shoulder and knew it to be his partner.

"Declined Hatake-san, I will be placing him in an orphanage as no one clan should have the Kyuubi in their grasps. When he reaches of age to become a shinobi he will be trained like everyone else." Hiruzen's tone left no room for argument as he looked down at the boy that was now in his hands, he wrapped the blanket around him tighter trying to provide as much warmth as possible.

"You are all dismissed." He spoke having already started walking back to the Hokage tower, he had a lot of paperwork to fill out after this mess.

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**PA: What did you think, and yes I know I made Minato out to be an ass, but more about that will be revealed later on. I know this chapter is really short compared to what I have been writing lately but it is an intro chapter the next one will more then likely be around the 10-15k mark as it will be a fair chunk of his childhood. Until Then.**


	2. Beginings

**PA: Chapter two is out hope you all enjoy now to answer some of your reviews.**

**To the guest reviews please use your name so I can address you properly.**

**Guest1: Yes I noticed, I was very tired when I first wrote it so there were a few mistakes. Also no I am completely skipping that apart from this first little thing but eh it is important to the storyline.**

**Zomebienuat: A little taste for you in this chapter:)**

**Guest2: It may seem pointless at the moment, but it will be explained further down the line, it is also the same reason why Kushina is strongly against the idea. That is one thing I hate when people make them all out to be bad, some _will _be bad but not everyone.**

**Skeek622: I agree and disagree with that at the same time, I see things like that done often, she will come into play in the story later on but not in a way you are expecting.**

**Zomvee: Heya man and if you mean his partner then it is explained in this chapter.**

**dbzgtfamn2004: I agree as it seems like the most likely pairing once this is all done.**

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A blonde child no older than four ran down the streets, he knew they were not safe, criminals of different kinds patrolled them at this hour, he was taught to learn fast after he was kicked out of the orphanage. His feet had to be faster then his mind, and his mind more cunning than a fox, no pun intended... okay maybe a little one.

He ducked into an alleyway and watched as a few genin ran by cursing him, a frown married his face, he learned early on that he was not well liked, he just wish he knew why, maybe then he could do something about it. He shifted back and knocked over a trashcan, he flinched as it hit the ground and spilled its contents, the sound would surely give him away. "I think he went this way."

He had found out his name was Naruto, no you thought that wrong, not nearly enough spite was put into that, at least that was how he figured you were meant to say that, he had only met a very small number of people that could say his name without wanting to try and harm him. He heard the splashing of feet running through the puddle he barely missed closer to the start of the alleyway and turned on his feet to run, he just needed to get as far away as he could. "His over here."

Naruto turned around and saw to whom that voice belonged, the owner of the voice couldn't be any older then 13, his brown hate filled eyes met Naruto's own blue scared orbs. He ran harder and could hear his heart throbbing to supply his body with the needed fuels to function. His feet hitting the ground harder, he needed to get away.

He saw they were leaving the civilian district and he let out a small sigh hoping that would reduce the amount of people chasing him, but he didn't have time to stop. "Naruto don't go in there!" Exclaimed a voice behind him, he didn't have time to look back as he could hear them coming closer, he spotted a tall fence with a small hole near the bottom, he pushed his body harder, and lept at the hole, his nails digging into the dirt beneath it as he scurried through.

"The demon brat entered the forest, should we still chase him?"

"Nah the forest will take him."

"If the forest doesn't the snake bitch will."

"Naruto get out of there."

He saw a mop of silver hair, he used to get visits from a man with silver hair when he was younger but then they all just stopped. He wondered why for a little bit but one of the caretakers said they probably released who he was causing them to run away. He felt a twinge of pain go through his chest at that thought, what was he after all? He looked at where he was now only just taking in that he was now inside some sort of fenced off forest.

_**'Travel deeper.'** _He lifted his head at hearing the voice again, the voice that had kept him alive for so long, always giving him new places to run, it was the one constant that he seemed to be able to rely on. He gave a small nod to himself and traveled deeper into the forest taking notice of how dense everything became, some of the trees were now wider than the alleyway he was hiding in earlier.

He could hear a strange sound further ahead and moved in its direction, a short time later he broke through a line of trees and came face to face with a running stream, he didn't even give it a second thought and jumped in to cool his body off, he dipped his head under he marveled at how much better he felt even after such a simple thing, he slowly brought his head up from under the water his blonde hair sticking to his face as he looked around to make sure he was safe before leaving the water.

**_'Come.' _**

Naruto looked around when he heard the voice, there was never anyone around that the voice could belong too, it was just there. "How?" He didn't know if he would even get a reply, a frown married his face as he slowly pulled himself out of the stream. He slowly dragged his body over to a nearby tree and leaned against it. His eyes started to drift close, they were now to heavy for him to keep open.

_**'Come, come to me** **Naruto.'**_

* * *

*Drip, Drip, Drip.* He could feel his eyes getting lighter as each drop hit his forehead, no longer allowing him to sleep, he felt perfectly fine, it was like he wasn't just running for his life earlier. He took notice that he was laying in water, if it were much deeper he would be in trouble, he slowly sat up and looked around. "A sewer? But I was just in a forest." He questioned slowly coming to his feet.

_**'Forward.'** _

The voice, it was the voice again, he moved through the water, his pace fast, the voice had always steered him right so far, he could see the sewer becoming wider and a large room started to form, he saw bars and a large piece of paper holding the bars together. 'Seal' Was written on the paper, it intrigued him.

**"I finally see you in the flesh, my first thought is weak, second pathetic, third useless and final is a waste of time." **Two red eyes come into view and gave a hate filled glare at the blonde child. **"My jailor, the one that holds me captive, is not able to fend for himself? How do you think that makes me feel fleshbag?"**

Naruto looked at the red eyes in question. "If you are just some other person that wants to hate me for the hell of it, get in line there is already a village ahead of you." His blue orbs started to tear up as he gave the red eyed creature a glare of his own.

**"I am not like those fleshbags human, I am a demon lord and demand your respect, I am the Kyuubi no Yoko." **Naruto brought up the sleeve of his torn and tattered long sleeve T shirt, once his tears were gone he gave a small snort.

"If you are the Kyuubi I will become the Hokage." He sneered at the beast as it came into view, showing its orange fox form with nine tails flowing behind it, it simply raised an eyebrow at Naruto. "...damn... ok so I take it I am dead yes? Because I know for a fact that you are." The great fox thrashed against the bars with one of its tails drawing Naruto's attention.

**"You are my jailor, they sealed me into your puny and disgusting body, not to mention weak." **

Naruto went quiet and his head turned to the ground, the water rippled below as his blonde hair covered his now crying eyes. "It makes sense, they think I am you."

**"Don't you dare say that, we are nothing alike, I am the strongest and you, you are a weak bag of flesh useful only as a meatshield." **Naruto shook his head and glared at the Kyuubi.

"As far as the villagers are concerned I am you." The great fox slammed his tails against the bars and bared his teeth letting out a snarl that froze the child in place.

**"I have decided on something fleshbag, would you like to hear it?" **The fox growled out and Naruto nodded dumbly, it didn't sound like a question more like and order. **"I hate you, I really fucking hate you, I will tear you apart the first chance I get, but I want it to be interesting so I am going to train your pathetic excuse of a body so it is capable of some form of fight. You have no choice in this fleshbag." **Naruto looked at the fox it seemed too good to be true.

"Naruto." He mumbled low causing the Kyuubi to grunt in question. "My name is Naruto, please use it Kyuubi." The fox laughed from behind its cage.

**"I will call you by your name when you call me by mine human filth." **Naruto was confused as he looked at the fox, so it actually has a name.

"Ok."

**"Hmph?"**

"Train me so we can fight, I am not fond of your either." The fox gave a grin and lay down face Naruto.

**"Tear off a tiny part of the seal, otherwise I can not teach you human." ** Naruto gave a small nod and the water lifted him towards the seal... he raised his hand and tore off the corner of the seal, a few small cracks spread across the bars. The fox slowly fed its youki out and watched as it poured into the blonde, the blonde recoiled at the pain before he started screaming as his body filled with pain, he looked at the fox with red bleeding eyes before throwing his head back and falling on the ground trying to claw his skin off.

**"Quiet fleshbag, you still have hours to go yet and you are already starting to make me irate." ** The fox lent its head back and laughed at the child before moving into the back of the cage, its screaming was becoming a pain.

* * *

His eyes slowly fluttered open his first thought was that he was back in the forest, it was not as wet as the sewer was, not only that but he felt great, pain suddenly shot through his head and his hands reached up to hold onto it only to scratch him, he let out a small yelp in pain as his vision started to return to normal instead of the blurry thing he was stuck with moments before. "Ahhh the half breed is awake, are you done screaming now?"

Naruto looked down at his longer then normal finger nails, they looked much like claws, he slowly raised his head to where the voice came from and saw a miniature Kyuubi laying on the ground not to far from him. "Sorry but it hurt, I think I am done now though, you know unless you have something more up your sleeve for me." The fox stood and slowly moved over before laying in his lap.

"I am your spirit partner, also welcome to demonhood of sorts halfbreed." Naruto looked down at the fox in his lap some of his hair fell in front of his face, he jumped up in shock seeing that it was orange. He sprinted to the nearby stream and looked at his reflection, his whisker marks were more defined, his hair had turned orange, his eyes were now crimson red with black slits, he could see muscles forming where there was none before, oh and yeah he had an orange tail.

"So the villagers were right... I am a demon." He dragged his clawed hand across his face tearing it open, only to watch it heal back to normal in a few moments, he let out a tired sigh and moved back to where the Kyuubi was laying happily. "A demon with a demon lord as my partner, the villagers are just going to love that."

He dropped to the ground and let out a groan Kyuubi jumped up onto his lap before knocking him to the ground putting a paw on his face giving him a small glare. "YOU are a half demon, I am a demon QUEEN halfbreed I am not a lord, yes that makes me female. Does that offend you halfbreed?"

"You calling me a halfbreed offends me, you being female it doesn't really bother me, good for you I guess and sorry if I offended you." Kyuubi tilted her snout up in the air and jumped off of Naruto making the motion with her tails for him to follow.

"We have training to do brat."

* * *

"Still no sign of him Hokage-sama." Six years had passed since Naruto vanished into the forest of death, Hiruzen himself was no longer sure whether the boy was still in the village or not, now he resorted to sending teams out to scour fire country hoping for some sign of the boy but each one had come up empty.

"Where are you my boy?" He looked at the photo of the small blonde wearing the Hokage hat and robes, standing next to him each wearing a happy and relaxed smile.

"Hokage-sama someone is here to see you." Hiruzen picked his head up and placed the photo down when he heard the voice of his secretary. He let out a tired sigh and had her send them in. In walked a short figure covered in a drawn hooded onyx coat covering their form.

"What can I do for you?" The hooded figure gave a small smirk.

"I think you should send the Anbu away, this is not something for their ears." Hiruzen studied the figure closely the voice was definitely male. The way he stood seemed relax, plus he was able to tell that their were Anbu in the room, he figured him to have some kind of military training.

Hiruzen waved away the Anbu he was not called the god of shinobi for nothing he could deal with this person if worse came to worse. "Now why have you come here sir?"

The person drew back his hood and Hiruzen gasped when he saw the whisker marks. "Konoha's demon brat has returned, I thought you could do with your weapon back, plus my father would be pissed if I left the village."

Hiruzen froze at the last line he spoke. "Naruto?" The orange haired boy gave a small nod and brushed some of his hair aside before a small orange fox stuck its head out of his coat. "You know about your father?"

"He was a smart man but an ass of one, his spirit was too fiery and arrogant, but I am not really one to talk am I?" He questioned looking down at the fox in his coat.

"You darn well aren't halfbreed. I still don't see why I am not allowed to burn this village to the ground." Naruto gave a snort.

"I am sorry about Kyuubi she has issues with this village and the Uchiha."

"Wait." Hiruzen pointed to the small fox. "Kyuubi?" Naruto and the fox gave a nod as the orange creature crawled out of his coat and waved its nine tail. Hiruzen pointed at Naruto's face. "You know of your dad?" Our orange haired Namikaze gave a small groan but nodded nonetheless. "Where have you been the past six years?"

Naruto looked to the fox who gave a small laugh. "The forest of death, kind of made a home there, it was really nice me and the creatures got along pretty well after I smacked them around a bit. So you want to let me into the academy or do I have to sign some papers or do a test, you know some piece of pointless shit." Hiruzen shook his head as Naruto removed his coat, showing off his more primal features IE a tail.

"Uh care to explain?" Hiruzen motioned towards stated tail to which Naruto just shook his head.

"Not really I am Namikaze Naruto, that is Kyuubi that is really all there is to say." The old kage started going through his desk searching for the files Naruto would need to join the academy. He let out a small cheer when he pulled out the booklet and handed it to Naruto who promptly filled the book out in five minutes and handed it back to Hiruzen. "Done." He muttered. "Seeing as I know of my family already, I would like to be able to live in their old house, also I would like for my accounts to be unlocked, I am here now and I plan to use what if rightfully mine."

Hiruzen nodded dumbly and walked over to the wall unlocking a safe and handing its contents to Naruto, the keys to the home its address and the code for the Uzu-Namikaze accounts. "Ta when will I need to show up for class?" Hiruzen scribbled down the classroom and time on a piece of paper giving it to the orange haired man. "Thank you, I will see you around old man." Naruto was consumed by a pillar of flames as the door behind him opened. A silver haired jounin walked up to the desk looking at the pale Hokage.

"Yo, where are the Anbu and why do you look like a ghost?" Hiruzen slowly turned to face Kakashi. "Oh yeah I failed my team, they were not ready to work together."

The white haired man shook his head and let out a groan. "Naruto is back." That was all he got to say as the window next to him broke as Kakashi ran out of it in search of the boy.

* * *

He was surprised at the looks he was getting when he walked down the road, it wasn't hate it was more confusion and question, some even looked a little scared as his eyes roamed the area in front of them. His feet came to a stop as he looked at the gate in front of him, he made a cut on his wrist and placed the blood over a seal the gate slowly creaked open and some nearby civilians gasped as it opened, it was well known that the Namikaze compound was sealed and only the blood of one could open it.

Naruto just snorted at their reactions as he walked in the gates letting them close behind him, not even noticing the silver haired person who stood watching his retreating form. "Naruto." Kakashi mumbled watching his sensei's son walk away again.

"Hey halfbreed that was a nice level of control you showed in the office, I could see you just wanting to tear him apart from hiding all those secrets." Naruto gave a huff and opened the door to the house letting his tail close it behind him, he took Kyuubi into his hands and gently lowered her down to the ground.

"Why don't you run around, just don't burn anything ok Akane?" The fox titled its head to the side in confusion looking very cutely at him."I hate you calling me halfbreed so we are using proper names in this house, you know unless untrustworthy people come."

Akane gave a small yip to get his attention, "Sure thing Naruto, stay out of trouble ne?" He gave a small shrug and walked around, he found his parents room and sat at the foot of their bed looking at where they would have slept.

"Would you guys be proud of how strong I have gotten?" He stood up to leave and saw a book laying on the small table in the corner, he let his hand glide over the table removing the dust from it before his hand rested on the book, he lifted it up and lightly blew against it to remove most of the dust, he opened the first page and saw it was written by his father when Akane attacked, it would seem he left a clone to write this, not believing he would make it through the night.

he walked down the small hallway seeing the photo's of his parents he came and stopped outside of a room that had his name on the door, for the first time in years his eyes started to well up barely holding back the tears, he pushed the door open and stood over what was clearly his crib not to far from it was a picture of his mother and father smiling brightly both holding a hand to Kushina's stomach, he held the photo with such care and leaned over the top of the crib just standing there, he couldn't bring himself to do anything more lost in his own world he didn't even notice when Akane snuck up behind him.

She wrapped a small arm around his waist and put her head into his back burying her head in his orange hair. She now looked to be around ten years old as Naruto looked to be 12, it seemed her human form was based off of his age. "What did I tell you about hiding your emotions Naruto?"

He lifted up the sleeve of his T-shirt and wiped away the tears he had let flow. "We are stronger if we let them run free, but weak if we let them control us, the best can show no emotion but still let it run through them." She gave a small nod into his back.

"Remember that ok?"

"Hai Akane-sensei."

"Good now bed time we have a big day of you showing up the village tomorrow." She gave a small smirk and dragged him to the master bedroom, she saw how he froze in his spot but shook it off and stripped down before getting into bed in a tank top and boxes while Akane was in a tank top like him both black and wearing a pair of biker shorts as she squirmed in the bed cuddling up to him to stay warm, she had gotten fond of sleeping with him through the night.

* * *

Naruto wore a pair of dark blue baggy pants that were tight around his ankles, a pair of black shinobi sandals, his top was tight around his chest and loose around his arms, his orange hair was pulled back into a ponytail a bang still hanging on either side of his face, his tail was wrapped around his waist holding a black Katana sheath to his back, his arm stretched out and placed his orange blade into his case a firm click locking it into place, he shifted it so the hilt of the blade was easy enough for him to reach while Akane rested on his shoulders acting almost like a scarf. He picked up the paper with the class room number on it again just to check he had it right, class 301.

With that he put it back down on the study and picked up his fathers book and placed it in between his tail and body. Holding it tight so it didn't slip away as he turned into a pillar of flames and appeared outside the academy, he quickly reached the third floor and found the room he was looking for, he opened it up and saw it was rather empty so he just made his way in and sat down, he felt Akane tense up and looked at what she started to growl at seeing the boy wearing the Uchiha crest.

"Is it going to be like this the whole time?" It looked like he was more or less speaking to himself while growling as the fox on his shoulders had still to move. He heard a small grumble in his ear that more or less confirmed what he was thinking.

Akane had found it most important that he had information on every ninja clan she knew of forced into his head should he ever come across them in battle, he can already have a step up on them. This is why he was able to tell that most of his class was full of clan children, he paid no real attention though and waited for the jounin instructor to enter when he did their eyes met and he called Naruto up.

"Seeing as you are new to the class would you like to introduce yourself."

"Not really Iruka-sensei but if I must." The chunin gave a stern nod. "My name is Namikaze Naruto, I have already unlocked my partner, this is her on my shoulders, I am not even sure why I asked to come here now that I am here, it seems none of you are worth my time."

"Halfbreed, the basics are important." Was the only response he got from the fox on his shoulders while Iruka looked at him in confusion, what did he mean Namikaze.

"As my partner just stated I am part demon, as I was meant to be turned into the villages weapon as a jinchuuriki, if you do not know what this term means then you should give up your careers now. I like training and dislike everything other then my partner, I hate people that are stupid because they don't bother trying to learn." Naruto had a bored look on his face as he turned to Iruka.

"Do I need to say anything else or should I start going into classified information?" Iruka shook his head slowly.

"You already did that was an S-rank secret."

"Iruka you must always read the fine print, only myself or the Hokage can tell others about my status, as I am indeed myself I am allowed to speak about what I was made for, the security in this village is disgustingly pathetic by the way." With that Naruto returned to his seat walking past girls who had started to have stars in their eyes, his gaze turned to the Uchiha who he found out was called Sasuke moments later, he had his own fanclub going, well good for him Naruto figured, he would never let Akane hear him say that though.

"Now we will begin learning the three jutsu needed to pass the academy, the henge kawarimi and bunshin." Naruto's head hit the table in shock.

"You never said their standards were so low." Iruka heard him and called him up to the front to demonstrate. Naruto formed a seal less shadow clone and proved it by getting it to through a duster towards the door which the clone then substituted with and he finally turned the duster into a copy of Iruka which had jaws on the floor. Naruto stretched a little and gave a small yawn getting a scream from his fan girls. "Do you need anything else?"

"Do you want to try for an early graduation?" The question froze Sasuke where he sat, he had been in this class for two years already and had never had that option given to him, but this random genin comes in and has it given to him within minutes of the class actually starting, it was inexcusable he was an Uchiha, the elite of the village.

"What about Sasuke-kun Iruka-sensei if this clanless kid is ready then Sasuke should be ready too." Iruka looked at the Yamanaka clan heir for a moment he felt like he wanted to cry.

"Ino Namikaze is the name of the late yondaime." A small meek voice spoke next to her out of the bubblegum pink haired girl. Naruto gave a nod of his head. "I think I should leave, I do not exactly fit in here no?" Iruka kinda shook his head and brought Naruto to the examination room. He had walked past one of the other teachers on his way here and had them look after his class while he did the examination.

"First up is a written test you have an hour." He placed the booklet on Naruto's desk only for it to be handed back less than five minutes later filled to the brim with answers.

Iruka looked over some of the answers given before passing it, if he could provide such detail in his answers then he figured they would all be right, plus it was only really needed for the final push to graduate if they failed at something else, he had already seen Naruto use the three jutsu so he had no need to test those. "Now to test how accurate you are with Kunai and shuriken Naruto." The boy shook his head slightly and saw the targets in front of him. "You need to hit all 5 at least once out of ten throws." Naruto gave a nod and plucked ten strands of hairs from his head showing them to Iruka before channeling a small amount of youki into them and flicking his wrist at the targets.

When Naruto made no movement to throw and just gestured at the targets Iruka feared a little for his sanity as there have only been a very few to have thrown more than one at a time. Iruka made his way to the targets and in fact saw the strands of hair each hitting a bullseye. He let out a shocked gasp but marked it down as 100% and moved on to the next test. A spar against the instructor or another student, he would be taking place here and test the boy himself.

Naruto moved to the ring as instructed and removed the sword from his back and placed his fathers book down along with Akane who gave a small grumble about uncomfortable ground and ungrateful halfbreeds.

"Now Naruto you need to land a hit on me or last for three minutes to pass." The orange haired boy gave a curt nod and gave a small bow before getting into a low stance with his hands hanging loose and spread. "I am ready."

"Begin." The words had just left his mouth as Naruto disappeared and appeared next to him striking fast with his hands and legs causing Iruka to go on the defense, Naruto gave a small smirk as he saw the busy man and grabbed his right foot which was leading in Iruka's stance before pulling it forward causing the man to lose balance and cop a hard double foot kick to his chest which left small cuts where he hit. Iruka tried to roll out of the line of fire only for a clawed hand to smash the ground next to his face, he looked up into the crimson eye's of Naruto who had a sick smirk on his face.

"Did I pass?" Was all he said before he picked the chunin up with his tail and put him back on his feet. The chunin gave a shaky nod and motioned for him to gather his things.

"Halfbreed how many times have I told you to not let those humans touch your tail." Naruto just shook his head at Kyuubi's words as he placed her back around his neck placing his sword and book around his waist again as his tail wrapped tight and held them in place.

"I don't like them much either but it will give me a place to begin." He whispered low enough so Iruka would not hear him to Akane prior to moving over to Iruka.

"I am going to escort you to the Hokage, so he can do the final evaluation." Naruto gave a nod and followed after Iruka who was still stuck in a state of awe by what this fresh academy student had just done.

* * *

Hiruzen looked up from the report and was surprised to see Naruto and Iruka in his office so quickly. "Naruto did you get in trouble already?" The orange haired boy gave a scowl at how someone could think so low of him.

"No lord Hokage, I am here to tell you Naruto just completed the graduation in record time, if you would allow it I think he is ready to be a genin." Hiruzen looked up in shock at what Iruka had just said before remembering the flame sunshin Naruto showed earlier.

"I will allow for it, can you please tell my secretary to send for Kakashi?" Iruka bowed and left the room leaving Naruto alone with Hiruzen. "You broke a record today Naruto, no one else has graduated from the academy as fast as you, even Kakashi and Itachi stayed two years." Naruto gave a small snort.

"I am here to fullfill my job, and become a weapon to the village for it to use as it seems fit, I do not really care about records or anything like that, the sooner you give me my instructor the sooner I will be out of your hair and you can go back to work." His tone stayed level showing training that should have been beyond his years, Hiruzen now stayed quiet and waited for Kakashi to appear it wasn't long until the silver haired jounin jumped in through the window.

"Yo." His usual greeting in place Kakashi felt they could now start the conversation.

"Kakashi, this is Naruto he just graduated from the academy I know you wanted a team of genin but maybe you will take just one for now?" Kakashi looked between Naruto and Hiruzen before agreeing.

"Well ok Naruto meet me at training ground 7 ok?" The orange haired genin took the headband that the Hokage was holding out and placed it around his forehead. With headband now in place Naruto took off down the road passing by the academy on their way to the training ground, it would seem that the kids were out for recess already, he heard a few screams as he ran past before a black haired kid stood in front of his path.

"What makes you so special, just because you are his kid you think you are mightier than the rest of us? Well I will show you what an elite of this village can do." Naruto looked to the fox on his shoulder who's head had perked up.

"Plus rip him apart and let me shower in his guts."

"Sadly as a shinobi of Konoha I can not only not throw the first punch but I am also not allowed to use lethal force, I am sad to say that you will not be able to bath in this ones blood maybe in that other Uchiha but not this one." Sasuke growled at the off reference to Itachi and dashed forward and Naruto hoping to catch him off guard, at the last possible moment Naruto lent forward dodging a punch to his head from Sasuke before dropping to the ground and spinning with his leg out to knock him to the ground, he caught the small Uchiha before he fell to the ground on his foot and flicked him into a nearby tree.

"I am so glad that the elite are insects before me Uchiha." With that Naruto turned saw that Kakashi had stopped not to far away from where he was, seemingly just standing by a tree not paying any attention to his fight, that is what it seemed like anyway.

"I you know he will more then likely be forced on me to take under my wing and train." Kakashi spoke in a monotone and continued onto the training ground Naruto gave him a small grunt as his response.

Kakashi turned around when he heard Naruto murmuring to someone, he turned around to see the boy talking to his shoulder and strange enough it was talking back, it started to make sense when he saw it move and took a more 'alive' like shape instead of just hanging there. Akane pointed out that Kakashi was looking at them and Naruto saw that he clearly wanted something explained.

"She is my partner Kakashi-sensei. I am sorry if we disturbed you but I enjoy talking to her and finding out what I can, it helps with our teamwork." Kakashi gave him an eye smile as he said the mans keyword in positive light too.

"When you entered that forest I wanted to chase after you, I am not sure why I didn't and I have no excuse, I did look for you though, I requested to join the search parties as often as Hokage-sama would allow me." Naruto gave him a small smile.

"Kakashi, the student of my father and one of the very few that looked out for me when I was younger... I was depressed for awhile when no one came looking for me, it wasn't until my partner here told me that we were hidden did I start to cheer up, that is when we started to take my training seriously and I had my head filled with information by this one here as I did chakra control exercises."

Kakashi motioned towards the fox around his neck. "Does this one have a name?"

Akane looked at him before snapping at his finger when it was within range leaving small bite marks on the end of it. "This one doesn't like being pointed at by fleshbags." Its nine tail lifted into the air and swayed around tauntingly in front of the silver haired jounin.

"Kyuubi?" Shock was in his voice and the small fox gave a nod.

"Naruto here has convinced me not to burn the village to the ground while he works for it, plus he is good to cuddle up with on a cold night." Kakashi looked between Naruto and Kyuubi before just shaking his head.

"And his tail, claws and all that?" Akane beamed slightly when they were brought up, she was still proud of what she did to him.

"Me and Kyuubi had to eh connect when we became partners." Kakashi waved his hand for more information. " I am sorry but you would hate me if I told you Sensei, I also find it hard to trust anyone other then Kyuubi after spending so much time away, I am sorry if this offends."

"Ma ma Naruto, it is understandable, but please note I could never hate you unless you went rogue." Naruto looked between Akane and Kakashi the first nodding her head with vigor, hell if Kakashi turned against him then he had less holding him here.

"Me and Kyuubi are no longer so different. I would speak more but it would seem that someone has spilt ink nearby we should probably help them clean up." Naruto gave a knowing smirk as the scent started to move away. "Now that the person listening is gone, I am a half demon. I gained so perks like much denser chakra."

"Its youki Naruto." Naruto gestured towards the fox and gave a nod.

"I was merely explaining it in terms he would understand Kyuubi." Kakashi waved a hand in between the two to break them up.

"I am glad I know who you are, but I think we may need to use a different name in public." Naruto let out a low growl.

"If she is happy going by that then she can, I will not force her to change just because of the idiot villagers." His eyes glowed red for a moment, was Naruto defending the queen of bijuu?

"Awwww Naruto are you trying to be my saviour? well don't I hate the idea." She gave a small snarl and snapped at his ear missing it barely to show as a warning, he didn't even flinch already knowing it was coming, he knew Akane had this feeling where she needed to try and bite anything she didn't agree with but he had grown used to her and she noticed that he didn't even flinch when she bit him in her miniature fox form anyway.

"Everyone needs someone to save them at one point or another." Naruto looked down and stopped talking, Akane gave a small frown and licked the side of his face.

"Sorry halfbreed." She joked to try and get him to lighten up.

"Sorry Demon Lord." He shot back with a small smile.

"Not even funny you ass." Kakashi watched the exchange in both confusion and awe, Kyuubi seemed almost friendly towards his student, much had changed in Naruto's time away.

"So how about we get started with a friendly spar followed by some training?" Naruto and Akane gave each other a sick grin before giving a nod and standing across from Kakashi. Naruto put his fathers book down on a rock that was nearby and had his tail unwrap and took it out of its case, his tail now swung the case around acting like a baton of sorts. Naruto lowered his stance the claws on his left hand growing longer now hanging three inches down from his fingers, the small fox on his shoulders was now standing up.

Kakashi brought out a kunai and held it in reverse grip in front of his torso. "Begin, lets so what your time away taught you."

Naruto's left hand sped through hand seals as he brought it up to his mouth. "Futon: Courtesy beam." He let out a small cough then steadied himself before releasing his body back and launching it forward, his feet held him in place and Kakashi watched as the ground in front of the boy got torn up.

Kyuubi placed her mouth near Naruto's with a small grin on her fox face. "Katon: Inferno Torrent."

Kakashi watched with wide eyes as Naruto's wind beam amplified the fire jutsu to new heights, he stopped preparing a defensive jutsu and moved out of its way watching as it melted right through the rock behind him, he breathed out a sigh of relief, glad he decided to move instead of trying to block it.

Kakashi didn't have time to think of a way around this as Naruto appeared before him holding his sword extended as it pierced through Kakashi's chest. The Naruto in front of him faded as did the wound it gave him and the world around him, it all faded to black a pair of crimson eyes gazing down on him the pressure wherever he was started to pick up as he was brought to his knees, like that it all vanished, he opened his eyes and found he could see through both.

He could also see a blade positioned right in front of his sharingan. "I dislike Uchiha's, my partner hates them with a passion, personally I just hate their eyes, the ability to see through most genjutsu and copy nearly any technique, they don't even have to work hard to become good, now do you act like an Uchiha or are you still the same Kakashi that I used to know?" The blade was still and did not move, it was poised to strike through the eye at a moments notice.

He looked at Naruto's eyes and saw the hate while Kyuubi was snarling at him. "I had the eye when I you were younger Naruto, it has not changed anything in the past six years, I am still the same Kakashi I was back then." Naruto brought his sheath around and placed his blade inside before placing it around his waist once again and helping the silver haired jounin to his feet.

"So how did I do?" Naruto gave as an offhand comment his mood completely changed from a moment ago.

"A lot better than I expected, but seeing who your teacher was I shouldn't be surprised." Kyuubi gave a small growl before laying back down on Naruto's shoulders.

"Two years huh?" Kakashi looked over at Naruto confused by what he said. "If you are right about the Uchiha brat being forced onto you we have around two years, the class was full of 10 year olds, normal graduating age is 12 right?" Kakashi gave a small nod. "So two years, until I have to put up with him on a daily basis, providing none of us die before then." Kakashi gave a small sigh but agreed walking over to the stone where Naruto had placed his book, he saw who wrote the book and his eyes light up.

"You can read it when I am done Kakashi but for now I would like to finish it first ok?" The jounin gave a nod as Naruto opened the book again.

* * *

"Mum dad I'm home." A certain cherry blossom announced as she came in through the front door.

"I'm in the kitchen sweetie." Came the cheery voice of her mother, Sakura quickly ran up stairs and put her books away, she would do some study after dinner. Her mum slowly turned around when Sakura entered the kitchen her hands never leaving the stove. "Your father got called away on a mission, how was school?"

Sakura let out a tired sigh, "Well there was this new kid that joined the class, his name was Namikaze Naruto, but the only Namikaze I know of is the fourth, and from what we know he didn't have a son?" Sakura saw her mother flinch when she said the name.

"So the prince has come back eh? Did he say anything else?" Sakura looked up at her mothers words.

"Prince? So he is related to the fourth." She saw her mother give a small nod. "He announced that he was a jinchuuriki I think that is what he said anyway." Her mother turned the stove down deciding to let it simmer a bit while she talked to her daughter.

"A jinchuuriki is in the most simplified way possible a weapon." She saw the outrage on her daughters face and put a hand up to stop her. "But I agree they are still people and need all the love as humanly possible, as they were forced to walk down a dark path, normally alone, as people become scared of what they hold inside them, you should talk to him get to know him a little my flower if he is anything like his father he will be a kind and caring man, that is unless he got an evil spirit but even still I doubt he could be too nasty." Sakura was taking in everything that her mother said giving a small frown at the end.

"I can't mum he already graduated." Saiki froze at what her daughter said.

"After a day?"

"After like half an hour."

"Th-thats a new record maybe you two were just not meant to be friends my dear flower, who knows what fate has planned for each of us." Sakura mauled the thought in her head.

"I hope I see him again, to show him that there are people that still care for him, plus he was really cute." Saiki gave a small giggle at her daughters tiny forming blush.

"Oooh now do tell sweetie."

"He had orange hair pulled back into a ponytail bangs left out to frame his face, he also had this bad boy kind of attitude but he wasn't all gloomy like the Uchiha, his was more of a indifference to everything, plus he is very skilled at least in the academy jutsu."

"Did you say orange hair my sweet?" Sakura gave a small nod to her mother.

"It was strange but he said he already has his partner and it was a fox laying on his shoulders." Saiki filed that away.

"How many tails did the fox have sweetie?" Sakura seemed stuck in thought.

"I am not sure mummy it had more than one though the fox matched the colour of his hair, he also had red eyes and whisker marks, they looked so cute but I didn't feel brave enough to touch them." Saiki gave a small giggle at her daughters pout.

"Maybe one day my flower maybe one day."

* * *

**Year one Of Kyuubi Training **

Naruto could be seen walking up a tree balancing a kunai on each finger while reading a book in the other hand, if you looked around you, you would see the same thing hundreds of times over a different book though for each Naruto. Sitting down in the middle of them all was Kyuubi her tails acting as a pillow for the small fox. The fox slowly raised it's head and let out a small yawn. "Naruto come down here, leave your clones where they are." One of the Naruto's jumped down landing before the fox with a look of indifference on his face.

"Yes Kyuubi?" The fox gave him a small smirk and used a tail to hold up a piece of paper offering it to Naruto.

"Push your youki through this." Naruto did as he was told watching as it split in two before one side crumbled up and the other burnt to ash. "Awww look we are perfect for eachother, I am a fire and water user myself, with a very minor air affinity, as you see we complete one another." The fox had a grin on its face watching as Naruto seemed to just be ignoring her, on one hand it irritated her, on the other it showed her that he was learning from her training.

"You should stop trying to flirt, you made it clear we are enemies."

"Don't you forget it halfbreed or do I need to nip you back into line?" Naruto seemed to ignore her again and started to pack up, his form slowly changed into that of the genin that he had seen in the alleyway earlier in the year.

"I am going to pick up some more books, do you need anything while I am gone?" The fox simply shook its head watching as Naruto walked away.

"He isn't too bad for a halfbreed." She thought to herself forgetting about the clones still in the trees with their enhanced hearing, she heard one of them snicker and paled. "Why me." She said before stretching her body out to go for a small hunt she was a little hungry after all.

* * *

**PA: His training is going to be explained in little flashes like this and also in small flashbacks throughout the story, I just felt like writing out his whole training would be kind of boring, so its going to be done that way, now before I get a bunch of flames about Kakashi and Naruto's spar, you have to remember Kakashi was expecting Naruto to be at the level of someone fresh out of the academy and was not expecting what happened, the whole thing caught him off guard. Other then that I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions or purely just want to say hi chuck me a review and I will get back to you on the next chapter, until next time Ja ne.**


	3. Long Road

**PA: Ok a little bit of a rant before the story, firstly if you are going to say someone has plagiarized something, inform both authors via a PM, you don't leave an idiotic review, now I have contacted Engulfing Silence about this and have yet to get a reply, but depending on his words I may have to rewrite the start of the story, I just find it disgusting that someone would leave a review like that, maybe that is because I have no intention of trying to copy anyone else's work and try to make mine as original as possible, maybe it is because I see myself as an honest person of sorts. Sorry about that but please if you ever want to try and call someone out just PM both authors do not slander them on their story like an idiot.**

**vikraal: The majority of chapter two was written before Guest even posted that comment...**

**I will happily accept your review and take back my words if you can point out where I went wrong, but I never said Hiruzen lied to his shinobi, he killed an Anbu to stop them from killing Naruto then said no one is to speak of the event.**

**He was sent to an Orphanage in the anime/manga before he was kicked out... yeah lets just let you insult Kishi's work some more...**

**Yes Naruto can call on the Kyuubi's chakra when his emotions are High you are right, but then why wasn't it done until Sasuke 'died' in front of him in the anime... the reason was the seal was still too tight it was designed to be loosened over time so Naruto would slowly get more access to the foxes chakra.**

**Whether**** he fought the kids or not doesn't really matter as it is not stated, but I will be honest if he did he would of lost, the seal was too tight to draw any of kyuubi's youki from it, he didn't have any training, never did I say one way or the other that he had any involvement with the genin before hand, maybe they were offered a treat by their parents if they 'caught' the demon child?**

**Did I say Kakashi was with those kids? I said he saw a silver tuft of hair and someone called out Naruto's name telling him to stop... The Hokage would have searched the forest of course, but really would he or his Anbu be able to break through demonic illusions..**

**The Akane/Naruto is something that will slowly be shown in the extra's at the end of the chapters as it was built over their time together.**

**Correct me if I am wrong but I was not told that we had to ****follow the manga/anime to the letter in our fanfictions... Naruto's seal in this story IS affected by the piece of paper, meaning when he used the water to raise to reach the seal, like he does in the anime/mange and like it is stated in my story and tore off a corner of the seal he unleashed a lot of Kyuubi's youki into his body causing the mutation that turned him into a half demon...**

**Picture this you are a ninja village that is prided with the title of the strongest in the land, now when you see a hooded figure walking through your _ninja _village you would understand some people like to keep their identity hidden... anyway would you expect someone to attack the man that trained Three of the most famous ninja in the land? I sure as hell wouldn't and I am sure the Anbu were more than happy to let their Hokage deal with the issue in a way he saw fit, plus they are taught to follow his orders to the letter.**

**Spirits and all things related to them are explained via Sakura and Sasuke if you would let the introductory chapters finish before asking this kind of thing maybe you would know... it's not like I am going to throw a huge 20k word chapter as the first one just so I can fit all the smaller details in, no the first chapter is used to set the scene of sorts normally the stories are not done getting the introduction done until 3-5 chapters in, that is when they bulk of your information will come to you.**

**Naruto himself is taught to not show emotion by Kyuubi as it is a sign of weakness, the supporting characters will more than likely seem one Dimensional for a time as I am still setting the plot, among other things. **

**It is good that you are done because from your review I only saw you making an ass of yourself pointing out things that were either right in front of you or that you should be able to piece together.**

**Also Fyi this story only had 10k words at your review not the 15k you stated, your entire review left me wonder if you actually read what I wrote or if you just wanted to try and be an internet bully but didn't actually know what you were talking about.**

* * *

**PA: Now to the rest of the readers I am deeply sorry about that rant but I felt like it was needed and it helped me cool off a little...**

**Now SkiesEagle thank you for your review it actually brightened up my day to see that now you will have to bare with me as I do not want to rush the relationship between Naruto and Sakura but it will be there you just have to trust me ok?**

**Onto the story finally and again I am sorry.**

* * *

**Story start**

Sakura sat outside, it was a lunch break during the academy yet she sat reading a book looking up from time to time at the place she last saw him a week ago, a blonde haired girl sat down next to her with a huff. "You should give up on him forehead, it's not like he is coming back to sweep you off of your feet, he is a shinobi now, there is a chance you will never see him again." Sakura folded the top corner of her book and closed it shut placing it on the ground lightly and turning to her food, she prodded at it for a moment before giving a small sigh.

"I know Ino-pig but I can hope can't I?" The now identified blonde gave a small shrug of her shoulders taking a bite of her rice ball before placing it back into her bento.

"Sasuke-kun is still around you know, and I hear he likes girls with long hair?" Ino tried to tempt her friend out of this silly crush, jinchuuriki were bad news, her father had warned her to stay away from him after she brought his name up at home. "Daddy said to stay away from him anyway and you know how smart my dad is." Sakura gave a small groan, her father had said the same thing, it had caused him to sleep on the couch for a few nights and home had been tense ever since.

"I-I will give it a shot?" She said nervously to the blonde causing Ino to smile at her best friend.

"Good now let's get you beautiful." Ino spoke holding a small amount of happiness in her words.

"Are you saying I am ugly?" Sakura looked at Ino with a horrified expression, Ino quickly raised her hands and shook them in defense.

"Nani, heavens no, you are good-looking now, but when I get done with you, you will be wow material." Sakura poked her tongue out at the blonde having walked her into a trap.

"Your treat then." Said the pink one as the bell went calling them back inside.

* * *

Kakashi walked out of the mission office a frown on his face as his fist tightly held the scroll. He turned and looked at Naruto who now wore a hood and facemask almost completely masking his identity, the only dead give aways now were his tail and the orange fox that was always with him. "What's the mission this time Kakashi-sensei?"

The jounin flinched when he was asked that question. "This is my final mission with you Naruto, the council believes I am just wasting time teaching you, I do not agree but I am being forced away." The orange haired child looked down to the floor at those words.

"Whats the mission?"

"Naruto I want you to know that I will help you when I am not out on a mission if you are in the village, I will also leave some ninjutsu scrolls for you when I can." Naruto gave his teacher a sad thumbs up.

"Thank you Kakashi, but what is the mission." The silver-haired jounin flinched at how cold his students had become, he had taught him a few things in the week they had been together but nowhere near enough in his books.

"A-rank, we are being sent to infiltrate a missing-nin trading post." Naruto flinched at those words spoken by his sensei, this was out of his league and he knew it.

"Suicide missions now?"

"The council believes that and I say this in their words 'A demon brat could do this, if he can't it is no loss to us.' I am sorry Naruto, but it is not something that can be turned down, Hokage-sama was backed into a political corner with the council and forced to sign off on it, I will protect you with my life though, I want you to know that." Naruto gave a small grunt and started heading towards the exit.

"half-breed says lets go, he is getting tired of waiting to die." Akane spoke from his shoulder and Kakashi watched in shock as his sensei's son closed himself off from the world.

* * *

Kakashi pulled his hand out of the mans chest, this mission had gone down the drain right from the start, it was like someone had rated them out to the outpost, he quickly looked around for Naruto but could not see the boy in sight, worry was present in his visible eye and if he wasn't wearing his facemask you would see it written all over his face, Naruto was at a fragile age at the moment, an evil presence washed through the area and Kakashi felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. "Naruto."

He sprinted off the the direction it was originating from and saw a circle of missing-nin surrounding an orange fox-man. His worry reached a new level as he saw a smaller fox laying beneath his feet, the foxman met Kakashi's gaze and picked up the smaller fox before tossing it over at Kakashi who tried to make his catch as gentle as possible, he looked down and frowned. "What happened?" He questioned the fox who groaned in his arms.

"Took...blade...halfbreed...rampage." She got out before slowly closing her eyes, Kakashi quickly checked her pulse it was still there but it was weak, he quickly made a clone and ordered it to hold Kyuubi and not let anything happen to her while he himself went in to aid Naruto, who was currently tearing through the missing-nin.

Kakashi lowered his arm as he channeled chakra through it for his own technique. **"****Chidori." ** His eyes snapped up and he raised his left hand to uncover his eye, he lowered his stance before running forward his arm dragging along the ground tearing it up behind him sparks flying wildly as he quickly closed the distance his hand carving through the skull of a missing-nin, one snuck up behind him only to have his body ripped in two and thrown into the air, his saviour did not even bother to meet his gaze before returning to the slaughter that awaited him.

It felt like hours passed in what was really minutes the enemy number had thinned dramatically, only a handful still remained, Kakashi was lucky that none here were jounin rank or this could of been much worse, his hand felt ready to drop off from how long he had sustained the Chidori but right now that didn't matter as two more nin rounded on Naruto while he was busy dealing with one in front of him, Kakashi flashed and appeared next to Naruto running his hand into one of the nin *squelch* he flung the nin around him and used him to knock the other attacker off balance as Naruto pounded the one that had his attention into the ground turning what was once a person into a mush of skin, bones and blood.

The orange werefox reared its head back before letting out a guttural roar freezing the remaining nin in place. "Its not human." Some screamed as they watched the mess that the outpost had been turned into, Naruto slowly stood and turned to face them cracking his neck to the side in his movements his red eyes boring holes straight through them.

"Lets get out of here." A deep voice spoke before the others agreed and fled leaving Naruto and Kakashi alone in the field sans for Akane who was currently passed out. Kakashi went to see if Naruto was ok only for the fox to brush his hand aside and walk towards his spirit partner, he took her gently from the clone and layed down on the bloodied ground with his tails wrapped around her for warmth. Kakashi sat down on the ground feeling himself thoroughly drained his body was sore all over but he could not complain, mostly because no one would listen to him anyway. He did the only thing he could right now and summoned his partner Pakun. The small dog looked at Kakashi and the bloodied field before looking at the large man-fox in the middle. (I will clear it up a little, yes Kakashi has the dog summoning contract, but Pakun is his spirit partner.)

"I don't even want to know, what do you need Kakashi?" The silver-haired jounin let his body flop down on the ground, he could dispel the clone he made and feel pretty good again, but then there would be no one to keep watch as they lay here for the night.

"I need you to go to Konoha, and tell them that we might be late back, let them know that while we failed in the infiltration the outpost was destroyed." The small dog tilted its head but nodded nonetheless, he motioned his head over to Naruto.

"What of the boy?" Kakashi looked over at the now sleeping Naruto still as a werefox but could not think of anything to tell the village.

"Don't mention him."

* * *

Sakura was running down the corridor Ino right beside her as the two were running late, the both tried to barge through the door at the same time causing them to fall in one after the other in a strange pink and blonde blur. Sakura quickly stood up to her feet and let out a heavy breath. "First." She proudly proclaimed only for the blonde that she was now standing on top of to mutter something which she deemed unimportant at the moment, she strode up and took the seat next to Sasuke, it had been a year since she had tried giving up on Naruto, she could now proudly call herself a Sasuke fangirl, alongside her pig-headed friend Ino.

Her theory marks were top of the class and it was something that you were made clear of often, as she mentioned it at least once a day. "Hn." The raven haired Uchiha stated as she sat next to him and begun to pester, asking him meaningless things like how his morning was and if he would join her for lunch, he didn't bother responding instead being more focused on the class as Iruka walked through the doors meaning it was about to start, after a quick roll call the chunin turned on his foot and wrote up on the board, 'Spirit Partners' the words instantly drew the Uchiha's attention knowing he would need one if he ever wanted to avenge his clan.

"Spirit Partners, no one knows how or why they appear, but they appear when they are needed most if they do at all, in saying this, not every shinobi has one, they do not make a good shinobi but they give them a drastic boost of power, skill and Jutsu. Plus depending on what you get you may get a side effect." The students looked up at him confused and he summoned a bat. "Mine is a bat, as such I learned how to make a sound so high-pitched that humans can not hear it, it bounces off objects and comes back to me giving me a layout of the land, at first glance it may not seem like a strong ability but lets say for example a thick fog were to roll through that made your eyes useless, well... I would be fine." He chuckled lightly at the end recalling an encounter much like that.

"When you meet your spirit partner, you have a choice whether you bond with them or not, bonding with them activates a mental link allowing the two of you to talk in your heads, allowing for you to come up with a plan without making a noise, also your emotions become linked in away,such as your if partner has a deep hatred for a person or village, you too would feel a certain dislike to them even if they were your best friend, I know people who had fought past these bonds and lived like nothing changed, namely The Yondaime, his partner was incredibly hot-headed and would jump into a fight without thinking things through at all, it was not due to her not having the intelligence to do so, in fact if you could get her to sit down and focus she was incredibly smart it was just in her personality and such actions almost cost the Yondaime his life a few times." Sasuke let out a sigh as Iruka was only going over things he already knew, it was not helping him at all, he took a subtle glance at the pink-haired thing next to him, she was absorbing every word he said causing him to frown, this was basic knowledge to them.

* * *

Naruto groaned in pain as he sat up, he glanced down at his partner who was more than content to sleep the day away, he pulled himself out of bed and headed to the bathroom as quietly as possible, he gently got the water to the right temperature and stripped his clothes away banging his head against the shower wall. He quickly washed his hair and flinched as his claws dug into his head again only for it to heal a moment later, sometimes he hated his body. He rinsed his head off under the water and reached for the body wash snarling at what Akane had picked, floral field.

She said foxes needed to smell pretty when they weren't on duty he thought that this was just some sort of way for her to get back at him, he honestly didn't care too much though, no one would notice if he smelled like flowers or not. No one sans Kakashi even visited him, he did his job and that was all. He frowned as he washed his arms, he never did fully get his body back after that night, now his arm was held back by seals of all kinds stopping it from spreading and being visible to anyone else, his tail as much as it pained Akane to come to terms with was now gone.

He let the water wash the soap suds off before stepping out of the shower and quickly drying himself off, putting on a clean pair of boxes and walking over to his dresser pulling out a pair of baggy pants slipping them over his legs and pulling his white open collared Shirt over his frame showing off his toned chest, he strapped a piece of red cloth around his waist tying it in place with the belt from his sealing scroll. He tied up his shinobi sandals making sure they were nice and tight he then fixed the seals over his left arm, a cloud of black wispy smoke slowly formed around the arm further hiding it from view, even if it was only his own, the seals covering his arm completely managed to hide it from everyone else, finally he picked up his Katana and placed it against his back along with his scroll, slowly he reached over, picked up his headband and tied it around his neck before drawing his hood over his face activating the seals to hide his face from view. _"I'm ready to go."_

He spoke through the mental link, he had not uttered a single word since the day Kakashi had told him he was being moved away from him, Akane now spoke for him, her translation's were not always correct but they normally got the job done. _"You take forever to get dressed half-breed, have my breakfast ready when I am done K?" _Naruto snorted and moved out of the room as the redhead stretched her body out feeling it crack back into place. _"Hey Naruto?"_

_"Hn?" _He responded back, it was never good when she actually called him by his name, something he learnt early on in their training.

_"I was joking about breakfast, take it easy today birthday boy." _The hooded figure frowned though no one would know sans him and Akane, she felt his emotions tug in her chest causing her to sigh.

_"I am going to pick up some breakfast, afterwards we can go do a mission." _Her frown deepened at his words, that was all they seemed to do nowadays, go out on missions or train their hearts out. She really hated being in this partner body, it was nowhere near the strength of her original.

She heard the door close and a thought came to her mind, _'How is he planning on ordering anything without speaking?' _ She shrugged her shoulders as she turned the tap on.

* * *

"Its Crimson." Gasped a villager before muttering in a hushed voice as he pointed at Naruto, the boy himself just ignored them as he moved past.

"How can you tell, he is completely hidden?"

"That's the outfit described in the bingo book, not to mention the gold inscription on the cloth around his waist which I might add is crimson, clearly has crimson written on it." The now somewhat annoyed villager stated to his companion. Naruto frowned at the moniker he had obtained, it was what he now went by though refusing to be known as that man's son, ever since that outpost mission with Kakashi his life had been turned upside down.

"Ok so maybe it is Crimson what are we going to do about it?" The villager laughed at what his friend was suggesting.

"Gennin or not he is still a B-rank nin, _I'm _ not doing anything." Others around him had to agree as Naruto made his way to a bakery, he slowly pushed the door open and took a small sniff of the products inside, he whipped out a pen and paper and quickly jotted down his order placing it on the counter and ringing the bell for the attendant, as she came out she looked down at the paper before looking back at Naruto giving a small gasp giving a small bow and returning to the back of the room, coming back minutes later with his order he looked down at the two coffees in their 'to go' cups and looked back at the server he took a small sniff and his shoulder slumped before pulling the pen and paper out again.

_'Two flat whites 1 sugar in each, and two croissants... hold the poison...' _He looked up at the attendant who gave a deep bow while her body shook in fear before returning and giving him what he ordered. He quickly scribbled down on the paper again. _'Thank you... Have a nice day.' _And left a very generous payment for her as he left the store casually walking back home he sneered at the way people looked at him, not that it mattered seeing as no one could actually see his face. He continued to move towards his house only to see a gift waiting by his doorstep.

_"Akane?"_ He questioned the demoness wondering if she had anything to do with it.

_"What is it Naruto?" _Her tone sounded worried.

_"There is a present... by the front door... I locked the gates when I left, did you put it here?" _The hundreds of years old demon racked her brain to try to find some answer for the boy, but came up with nothing.

_"No clue who could have put it there, I haven't left the house yet..."_ Naruto stared down at the package with a frown on his face, he summoned a shadow clone, one of the few jutsu that Kakashi had been able to teach him before he got banned from doing that as well. The clone picked up the package and moved away from the original.

The clone gently put the box on the ground and started to unwrap the gift, inside was a book, a cake and a home cooked meal, he couldn't smell anything wrong inside the box so the clone turned to face its creator and give him a thumbs up before dispelling. Naruto frowned at the idiot of a clone when he looked down and saw his hands were full. _"Can you open the door?"_

He waited for his response from the demon that lived with him with a frown, he never really was patient. _"Hai Just drying my hair off." _Moments later the door opened with Akane clad in a towel wrapped around her body, a second one drying her hair, the orange haired boy walked into the house and placed their breakfast on the table before heading out again and grabbing the contents of the box, his eyebrows rose when he saw the book and small note attached to it.

_'Didn't quite know where you were up to but I saw you have taken an interest in the sealing arts, whether this is something to work towards or just something to expand your knowledge I don't know but I send it with love either way, there are still people here that care about you Naruto.'_

_'With love H.S.'_

He saw the book and found it interesting as it was the one he was looking at in a shop window a week ago. _"It seems like someone is watching what we do in the village." _Akane walked out in her muscle top and shinobi pants holding a larger jacket in her arms, she tilted her head at Naruto's statement before he passed the book and note to her. Her eyebrows rose slowly before placing them down on the table and picking up her coffee taking a sip and giving a sigh of relief.

They quickly finished off their breakfast, placed the gifts into the fridge and left the house, Naruto's new book inside his scroll, making their way towards the mission house.

* * *

It was a new day and he saw the bright and eager faces of his students waiting to be taught... ok he saw a bunch of shinobi wannabe's squabbling for no reason over a seat next to their 'precious Sasuke-kun'. Said boy was starting to get on his nerves, he was always asking to be tested for early graduation, sure the boy was ready he knew the jutsu, he knew the theory and he sure as hell could throw his shuriken and spare like a genin, it was just the thought of what had been done to Naruto that stopped it all.

Hiruzen had told him all about the council forcing him on high ranking missions only for them to be outraged when he came back alive, with the mission complete nonetheless. This made Iruka curse himself for letting him graduate early, if he was on a proper team maybe all of this wouldn't have happened? He shook his head and let out a tired sigh as he got the classes attention and started writing on the board.

"Continuing from out topic yesterday, some Spirits choose to let their summoner's sign the contract for their species, leading examples of this case are the Three Sannin, at early ages they were pushed hard by their instructor, this in result lead them to be a well functioning team, sadly they were thrown into the deep end one mission, the end result was that they awakened the spirits meant to protect them, after years of training with said spirits they allowed the Sannin to sign their contracts, Slug, Snake and Toad."

Sasuke frowned thinking about it, did Itachi have a contract now? What about that Namikaze kid? These were questions he wanted the answers too but could not get them while he was still stuck in this damned academy. He grunted and looked at the window before a glare ran over his face. "Crimson." He spat seeing the man walk past the academy on his way to god knows where. People were saying that this Crimson person was the next Itachi and that irked him, if he was anything like Itachi then Sasuke would need to test his strength against the man. Sasuke stood and asked to use the bathroom, Iruka glared at him for a moment because he interrupted his class but agreed, the raven haired Uchiha walked out of the class closing the door behind him before running down the halls to confront the man known as Crimson.

* * *

Naruto looked at the child in front of him with confusion, his face seemed familiar, but it was the glare that caught his attention, it wasn't like the other glares he received, no this was different, this boy hated the idea of him, not him as a person. "Move brat Crimson and I have things to do." Naruto looked to see the hate filled glare on Akane's face. _"An Uchiha?"_ He questioned, it was the only clan she hated with a passion, that he knew of anyway.

_"You really are blind half-breed, he has their crest on his back."_ He just shrugged at her answer.

"I am not leaving until I prove my own strength by beating you." Naruto frowned under his hood at the boys answer.

"Crimson says to come, he will show you what strength really is you pest." She spat the words from her mouth while Naruto lifted his right arm from the Katana on his back, flashing out of Sasuke's view before pinning the boy to the wall, in a show of force he slammed his left hand into the wall, Sasuke's eyes went wide as the wall started to crumble, he threw the Uchiha to the side and continued on his way. "Stay in the academy pest, the real world isn't for you." Akane stated as she joined back up with Naruto she turned around and gave a fleeting comment to the Uchiha. "I would have just killed you."

_"You shouldn't taunt people when they are down, it is disrespectful to your opponent." _The girl gave him a snort as he entered the mission house.

_"He got what his wretched clan deserves and you know that." _They stopped their bickering and opened the final set of doors, he frowned when he saw the council behind the desks, no easy missions for him today.

"Uzumaki-san." The speaker sneered while he reached for the A-rank knowing it was impossible to give him anything higher due to laws, it was not unheard of but genin were known to get A ranks from time to time." This is a mission given by the council, it would seem that a member of the Yuki clan has survived your mission is to either kill them or capture them for the village, it is A-rank, the scroll was tossed to Naruto who caught it with ease." He opened it up and frowned all there was in the scroll was a location where the person was last spotted, no other kind of information, he was flying blind like normal.

"We will get it done." The council wanted to scream at the boy for not answering them directly but they knew nothing would change and merely snarled at him as he left the room.

_"To the borders of Mist and Fire we go, let's get home and pack." _Inwardly Akane sighed as Naruto was now in mission mode meaning that there wasn't going to be anymore playing.

* * *

"Huh? Sasuke what happened?" Iruka questioned seeing the dirty Uchiha, who only gave a grunt as he went back and took his seat, Iruka wanted to know but if he pushed the issue who would be scolded by the council something he found out after he first tried to ask the boy anything. He shook his head and got back to his lesson.

"Spirits are able to serve as front line fighters once they achieve their human form, achieving the human form is something that still eludes us but we think it stems from their connection with their partner the stronger it is the stronger the body they get. Spirits are able to be summoned by their partner as they please, but they drain chakra for the time they are present."

Sasuke grunted from where he sat, once he got his spirit partner things would be different, he would then become part of the elite, once he got his eyes as well he would be unstoppable.

* * *

"They send me out every year, without fail on the one day I want to stay in the village." He looked to the small child by his side and saw him just shrug his shoulders.

"They don't want him to have anything Kakashi, we both know that, they would take his house away if they could but it is fully paid off and in his name." The silver-haired jounin frowned knowing it was too true.

"Well come on Pakun lets just finish this B-rank off and get home fast, if we are lucky we might be able to catch him." Pakun just frowned he admired Kakashi's loyalty but the village would always try to drive a wedge between the two and he knew that.

* * *

"How was school sweetie?" Saiki spoke to her daughter as she heard the doors to the house open and close, her husband had gone out to drink and celebrate the defeat of the Kyuubi, she shook her head lightly knowing that his behaviour was disgusting and a bad influence on her daughter.

"It was really good mum, I think Sasuke might be starting to like me, I saw him look at me today." The pink haired child beamed as she spoke about the Uchiha causing Saiki to worry about her daughter, those Uchiha's were rotten, the only two that weren't were Itachi who ended up killing off his whole clan becoming a criminal in the end, actually no he was rotten now but his mother, she was a saint and the people loved her dearly.

"What ever happened to that little crush you had on the Namikaze boy?" She tried to ask as an offhand question feigning not to really care, it seemed it worked on her daughter who gave a small huff.

"Ino's dad and daddy say that he is bad news, I-I think I agree with them, I mean we haven't seen him since he left and don't know what has become of him, I think it is better if I stay chasing Sasuke, I know he will return the feelings one day." Her pink haired child ran upstairs to study before dinner, it had always been that way, Sakura felt like she was behind because she came from a civilian family, physically she was but would not put in the work to fix that saying she didn't want to get muscular and un-attractive.

Saiki did all that she could trying to put as much protein in her daughters meals as possible but now she refused to eat some nights causing her to become unhealthy, and unfit. As a mum she felt she had let her daughter down for letting her become like this. "I hope you are ok out there Naruto."

* * *

Naruto downed another cup of saké as he sat in the bar. '_Woo, happy birthday to me I guess.' _It was the worst day of the year, it reminded him of how alone he really was, he asked Akane to stay at the room and give him some space, today was the only really day where he couldn't handle being close to her, it was the one day where he wanted to be alone to think about everything he had become, he emptied the bottle into his sake dish and frowned knowing he would need another, as he was about to move to get another a man slammed four down in front of him and took a sweet.

His eye's went wide at seeing the man, Momochi Zabuza. He pulled out his paper and pen and quickly jotted down a note. _'Why are you here? Aren't we normally trying to kill each other?'_

Zabuza read the note and looked back at Crimson a smile hidden behind his bandages. "Normally we are yes, but I see us as rivals, seeing you down in the dumps like this, plus you have already been drinking I think it would be best to just talk, fighting when you are drunk would not be that interesting to me." The demon of the mist started pouring Naruto another dish, Naruto nodded his head at Zabuza as thanks.

"What are you here for Crimson?" The man asked taking his blade off of his back and putting it next to Naruto's as a sign of trust between the two swordsman. They may be rivals but they were not barbarians.

_'Konoha's council wants the Yuki bloodline, I was sent to either retrieve it or kill it.' _

Zabuza's eyes widened a little. "Looks like we will need to fight again, I wanted to take the child as my student, the road can get lonely at times you know?" Naruto gave a small shrug of his shoulders.

_'You could always talk to your Spirit... I know whenever we meet we need to fight and we shall but I found some interesting news that Konoha doesn't know about that you may like." _He jotted down and filled his dish again. Zabuza waved his hand in a go on motion. _'Pretty little blue haired thing, maybe a couple of years younger than yourself walking around in these parts, people have said she has the crystal release, I figured you want a new student, I want to complete my mission, if you take the crystal girl and I take the Ice user, we both get what we want, of course we will still fight as that is tradition, but this way seems to work for both of us Ne?'_

Zabuza smacked his hand against the table in a roar of laughter, "See Crimson, this is why I like you, how about we work together after our fight, you know show the world that demons can actually work together."

_'Oh but Zabuza, you must have me mistaken, I am a Dancer not a Demon.' _It didn't even need to be spoken and Zabuza could hear the sarcasm all over that sentence.

"We both know what you are Crimson."

_'Fine, I will admit I like you more than some of the people I have teamed up with before, so tonight we drink, tomorrow we fight and the day after we hunt those people down right?'_ Naruto held his dish up to Zabuza who gave a small laugh but knocked his against Naruto's.

"Right. Happy birthday Crimson." Naruto's eyes went wide under his hood and his body went stiff causing the older nin to laugh lightly. "Yeah I know who you are gaki, your secret is safe with me." Naruto nodded his head gingerly at the bandaged nin.

_'It is hardly a secret to who I really am, I just despise who created me, my father an asshole of a man, my mother a weak fangirl. They were strong Shinobi but weak people.' _He had not found anything to tell him about his mother's past so he used what Akane had told him.

"Eh? Well it's not actually that big of a surprise, some of the best are weak-willed people." Zabuza and Naruto both nodded as they agreed with the statement.

_'I see you as a rival and as hard as it is to say, I think you are the closest thing I have to a friend.' _Zabuza poured them both a new dish.

"People like us need to stick together, both outcasts, both looking for our place in this cruel world." He swirled the Sake around in the dish before bringing it up to his lips, this was to be a long night.

* * *

Akane groaned as she got out of bed, looking over at the clock she saw it was 4am, she wondered what woke her until she heard some very bad singing, with an equally bad beat, not to mention someone that was a very bad guitar player.

(I am sorry for this but it had to be done.) (**This song is owned by Tenacious D and is called Tribute**, it is really good and I could see Zabuza singing it... well if he sung but yeah so I chucked it in."

"Twish is the greates and bwest song in z world... Trebute." She slammed her door open and saw a very drunk Naruto and Zabuza stammering down the hall, it would seem that her partner was trying to play guitar while the masked nin sung, it was not pretty.

"Wong timez ago, me and my brozer Dwancer here, be whitchhikin' dwown a wong and wonesome road. Wall wuv a swudden, dare shine a whiny demon... in z widdle... of z woad. And He said: 'Play the best wong in the world, or I'll beat your souls.'" Akane had enough and stormed up to the two knocking the guitar out of Naruto's hands and grabbing Zabuza by the scruff of his shirt.

"What the actual fuck, I am trying to sleep in here and this is the shit I get, you go off and get drunk leaving me here by myself and end up with a guitar let alone with the demon of the mist, singing drunk as a fucking skunk?"

Zabuza tried to shush the redhead and patted her gently. "Zou interwupted z best part ya knowz?" She shook her head at their antics.

"Where did you even get the guitar?"

"It was a wong woad." Came the drunk reply from the missing nin as he struggled to stay standing without Naruto's support.

"I actually think they were doing an alright effort, all things considered..." Another voice said coming out of the room next to them causing Akane to get even angrier.

"Should've known you would be here if he is. Haki." Akane spat at the White haired maiden in a kimono, storming over and slamming her head against Haki's their eyes meeting and sparks of lightning flying between the two.

Naruto and Zabuza got along really well, their spirits on the other hand did not.

"Owww Shit Cwimson, we weft ouw blades behind!" Zabuza roared in a hushed tone.(is that even possible?) Naruto flung his left arm around and ripped his sealing scroll from its holder slamming it on the ground before searching for just where he put their blades. Finding what he was looking for he smashed his hands against it pouring a small amount of youki watching as the hilt of his rivals blade came into view, he motioned for said man to take his blade as he looked between Naruto and it.

Naruto let out a tired sigh and grabbed his pen and paper, it took him longer to write this making sure it was easily readable. _'You walked off, leaving our blades there I quickly sealed them knowing you would freak if you forgot about it.' _The demon of the mist shrugged his shoulders before picking up the blade and placing it on his back almost falling over in the process. _'Take it easy.' _Naruto gave a small wave and entered his room as did Zabuza leaving the two arguing spirits standing in the hallway. A resounding click fly past their ears, sadly they did not hear it.

Minutes passed and the two turned to get back up from their partners only to see that they were no longer there." They just left us... AGAIN?!" The two said in unison before walking to the doors only to find they were locked tight.

_"Naruto Namikaze if you don't open this door right now..." _She trailed off in the mental link letting her threat hang in the air, she was not expecting the response she got back though.

_"Its Crimson, or Naruto, don't you dare address me with their names." _He spat out with such hatred that it caused her to flinch. She brushed her hair behind her ears and softly leant against the door, she wasn't going to use the link anymore she felt it would be better if he actually heard it instead of it being thought to him.

"H-hey..." She started softly trying to encourage him to join the conversation, she wasn't expecting a reply though knowing he didn't exactly 'talk' much. "I know I shouldn't have gone off at you before, I was just upset was all, you put me in your shoes and I'll happily admit it feels terrible, watching as someone walks off on you, not knowing if you will see them again, I was actually scared when I went to sleep that you wouldn't be here in the morning, that you would just skip town. I guess I am trying to say I am sorry about all those times I would insult you when you were down, I know what it feels like and it hurts." Haki sat still looking at Akane in shock, she didn't think that the demon/spirit could be so reasonable, so understanding of someone else's issue.

The door handle slowly turned behind Akane and she stopped leaning not wanting to fall into him, the lights were off in the room leaving only his glowing red slitted eyes visible, showing he had already gotten undressed. He slowly came into the light showing his toned and scared chest, while he still healed faster than normal anything deep would become a scar and it was something that Akane hated, seeing the few that had happened when he risked himself to save her. She moved forward and wrapped her arms around him leaning her head against his chest listening to his ever even heartbeat. She slowly turned her head up and looked at his burning eyes, she was the reason he was so cold and made it so hard to talk to.

"Can you promise that you won't leave me?"

_"You said it clearly yourself we are enemies, but no I won't leave you until one or both of us is left laying on the ground. That is a promise." _His arms gently snaked around her waist and held her tighter as she fought back the urge to cry.

"So that's what you hide under that wood Cwimson." Said red eyed boy looked over to the missing nin trying to look menacing leaning against the door frame only for him swaying from side to side throwing the whole feeling off.

"Way to spoil the moment Zabu-kun now let me in the room!" Haki spat as she stormed past him giving a swift kick to his shin for good measure, Naruto saw the tears building up in the corner of his eye, he gave a subtle nod to the missing nin.

"He says its ok to cry Zabuza, he knows he hurts." Akane gave a small smirk at their rival team seeing as Zabuza was shaking his head stopping them from coming. He quickly spun on his foot and entered his room following behind Haki and flopping down on his bed the door closing behind him in some weird fashion. The mood being spoiled completely Naruto follows his rivals lead and heads back to bed pants still on, he was too tired to get undressed and just wanted to sleep while he could. He heard the door close and feet shuffling being someone sat on the edge of his bed, he didn't need to look up to know it was his partner.

"Is it still ok if you keep me warm?" A small smile crept to his face, some things would never change.

_"If I must." _

* * *

**Year 2 **

Naruto's tail lay still showing he was focused, his eyes were closed in concentration before shooting open as he drew the blade Kyuubi had given him deflecting the incoming hail of Shuriken and Kunai, *thunk* was heard around the clearing again and again as the projectiles hit their targets, with a flick of his sword he sent a small tailwind knocking the last Kunai into the target that lay between his feet.

Some people would say this training was too hard with for a child, they would be right but Naruto was a child like two others that had come before him, he tilted his head to the side narrowly dodging a kunai that he hadn't thrown. "At least you are paying attention, you are still wasting movements." A feminine voice stated as a child looking maybe a year or so younger than Naruto came into the clearing, vibrant red hair framing her teardrop face and cascading down her back, she wore a simple pair of biker shorts and a tight muscle top. "If I could use my full strength by the gods I would have hit."

Naruto gave a stiff nod knowing it was no joke, she was aiming to try and kill him. The both vanished from view and the sound of metal was heard, now they appeared to be floating in mid air, his blade clashing against her longer than normal nails, acting as claws, something clicked in his mind and he relented on his push allowing her to strike him and send them both to the ground, the sound of metal sinking into wood was heard again and Kyuubi looked up to see Kunai piercing the trees at the height they were just sitting at, she gasped that he would try to protect her, looking down at his chest she saw her strike had gone down to the bone leaving three claw marks against his chest.

He slowly stood to his feet despite the pain, "Heh guess I slipped." He lied not knowing she had already seen what happened. He winced as he took a step forward feeling the extent of the wound on his chest. "For someone so small you can hit hard." She huffed in annoyance and anger, angry that he kept referring to her as small or short and annoyed that he would risk his health trying to save her, if he wasn't going to bring it up then she wouldn't either.

"Training is done for the day, it will take you too long to heal." She spoke in an offhanded kind of way before heading back to their 'home', it was a simple thing build inside a rather large tree, his two years of training may not seem like much, but when coupled with the amount of clones he could produce she was more than happy to say he knew _something _about being a ninja. She saw Naruto come in some time after her and grab a book on sealing intent to learn the art and make a name for himself as one of the few seal masters of his time. Night slowly came and in order to do something nice for the boy she went out to town and 'purchased' some ramen knowing it was his favourite even if he would not admit it.

She stepped back into the house and saw his nose twitch making his whisker marks move in a cute way, she paused in her step knowing she could not feel that was about some half-breed, and scowled as she walked to the table slamming the ramen down which caused him to cover his ears due to the loud sound before slowly moving towards the table, if one studied his form closely you would see that it held some excitement in it. Kyuubi didn't even know why she was being nice to him but when he sat down and looked at her with his crimson red eyes and gave her a small "thank you" it seemed to put her at ease as he slowly dug into the dish. After dinner he cleaned up and took his book back to his room seeing as he would need to rest for tomorrow he had a candle lit next to his bed so he could read himself to sleep, he frowned as he heard soft steps coming to his door knowing that he was not bothered of a nighttime as this was his time to study.

The door slowly creaked open and his hand was rested on the kunai he kept under his pillow, it was rusted and deformed but he had learnt how to handle them well enough that it was still useable, he looked up and saw his housemate the redhead standing in the doorway. "I am sleeping here and using you as a heater." He rose his brow in confusion but let it rest knowing there was no point in arguing with her when she was in one of her moods.

She felt disgusted with herself but happy that she was going out on a limb anyway, maybe if they spent enough time together something could form other than the hatred they shared... She cursed at herself for thinking along those lines again before slipping into his bed, he slowly leant over her and blew out the candle before turning his back to her and letting sleep claim him.

Naruto awoke facing the same way as he went to sleep, normally this wouldn't be a problem only this time there was a small redhead between his arms snuggled into his chest, he blushed madly seeing how cute and innocent she looked, unfortunately he woke her up and she gave him a hard glare. "What do you think you are doing half-breed?" She snapped Naruto gave her a glare back.

"I didn't do anything Kyuubi I stayed in my place with my back turned to the candle." He thumbed at the candle to prove his point knowing she was on the other side when he fell asleep. She huffed in annoyance, why did he have to make such a big deal over something like this? She thought inwardly.

"You have no proof, but whatever blame this on me if you want." She threw herself from her 'pillow' and stormed out of the room leaving an even more confused Naruto in her wake.

"B-b-b-but it is your fault?" He asked with question in his voice as she left, not knowing that this would become a regular event for the two.

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**I really want to go above and beyond with this story but after two of the reviews I got on the last chapter I am finding it harder than normal to motivate myself towards improving this story, I honestly want to know what you think, and please if you are going to be like vikraal and try to point the blame at things that are clearly explained I may chew through you as well, in saying that I actually enjoyed dealing with that idiot as it allowed me to vent my frustration. Until next time Ja ne.**


	4. Nii-san

**PA: I want to say a big thank you too all of you guys, now I know you are here for the NaruxSaku and it is coming, i really don't want to rush it as I want to make sure it blends together in a way that would actually work. I loved reading your reviews as it made me feel better about me work, now I know sometimes I have a pretty bad habit of repeating He or She, normally it is safe to say that it means the last named person of the respective gender.**

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"Come on Zabuza, you have fought Crimson harder than this before." Akane taunted from the side lines as Naruto parried another strike from Zabuza sending the larger mans sword to the ground, Naruto spun on his feet and flicked his Katana around in his right hand stopping it by the missing nin's throat, he waited for a few seconds before placing it back in its sheath and chucking Zabuza his blade back. "He says we should get going, they are pretty close if we are going by word of mouth." Naruto and Akane took the lead with Zabuza and Haki not to far behind them.

"Zabuza why were you holding back?" The bandaged nin looked to his spirit with a small frown on his face.

"Haki how many arms does that boy have?" He pointed to Naruto to make sure she knew who he was talking about.

"Uh two... I think?" Zabuza gave a small laugh at that.

"It is two I have seen him use it before to catch my blade, he nearly broke the thing in two, if he limits himself I do not got flat stick on him, even though if we were to both go flat-out I believe I wouldn't be walking away from the fight." Haki looked at her partner in shock, this man normally so full of himself was admitting that this child could beat him? "Not only that Haki but I know he is good at seals and has multiple elements under his belt yet he only used Kenjutsu, even when I started using my water jutsu he stayed with just his sword, in the end he still won." The group had indeed taken notice of the fact that it had started to snow, this in turn caused Naruto to spin on his feet and point at the currently topless man.

"Crimson says we are stopping to get you something warmer, something about you bitching when you're sick." Zabuza gave a small thank you while Haki and Akane shot daggers at each other through the use of their eyes, Naruto gave a small tug on Akane's arm as the signal to cut it out to which she quickly did confusing Haki to no end, the Akane she knew used to constantly put the boy down, when did she become caring? Understanding?

"It is best not to think about things that are out of our hands Haki, they are friends that is all we really need to worry about." Zabuza's soft voice shook her from her thoughts as the group made a quick stop in town. It wasn't long before they found a clothing store and Zabuza had a thick shirt and a long coat thrown at him along with some boots and socks to keep his feet warm, Naruto and the girls also opted to get into something warming, Akane frowned at her choice of attire for the mission, she should have known that it was going to start snowing soon, why on earth did she wear so little clothing?

Zabuza and Naruto came out of the changing room wearing matching ankle long open front coats each with a high collar to help keep the heat in, they were thick and durable but felt as light as a feather, they bumped each others fists and went to pay for their items. All up it had only cost them 10000 Ryo (10 Ryo = $1 in this story, yeah I am actually going to change it from the 1:1 ratio I normally use...) Naruto looked around at his new jacket and shifted his large sealing scroll to sit diagonally on his back while his sword was strapped in its new holster running the length of his spine, Zabuza just kept his Executioner sword stuck to his back with chakra while he did the final touches on his new combat boots tieing them tight.

It didn't take much longer for the spirits to get done changing and fingers were pointed across the room as it would seem they had a very similar winter fashion sense, both now in larger winter jackets with a hood, and wearing much thicker pants coupled with combat boots that had bandages wrapped around them to keep the pants in place. The only real difference was the colour of the jackets, Akane's being a deep red and Haki's being a light blue. There was some shouting and name calling but Naruto had had enough and when he put his foot down Akane acted like a frightened puppy for a few moments, even going as far as to apologize to Haki which shocked the snow maiden to the core.

"Crimson wants to know if we can get on the way, I am not saying that! NO! Fine... he is tired of me causing trouble and wants to get this job done as soon as possible." Zabuza didn't even pay any mind knowing that in the end Naruto got what Naruto wanted, one way or another, Haki just decided to follow her lead.

"I too am sorry Akane, I have caused trouble when it was not needed." Zabuza looked between the two spirits and then back to Naruto only to see the boy had vanished, the open shop door being the only indication of where he went, the group made haste and quickly left the shop to find him standing across from a small child and a blue haired girl. The small child slowly stood and took Naruto's right hand and the two moved to another store with the blue haired girl following close behind them.

"What can I ge- Ah Crimson it is good to see you again, will Zabuza be joining you?" Naruto gave a small nod and motioned towards the blue haired girl and the child, he mimicked eating out of a bowl and the waitress knew what he meant and took them to a rather large table.

It wasn't too much longer before Zabuza and co entered the establishment a small smile was on the missing nin's face as this was where him and Naruto had met, the waitress saw him enter and waved him over to where Naruto was with the two others. Akane made her way over and plopped down next to her partner, she was about to scold him for leaving them all behind when she saw the small sign's he formed to her, he quickly did the same to Zabuza and the bandaged nin nodded as a group of Iwa nin entered the place, the bluenette tensed noticeably and Zabuza hid her behind himself, Naruto made his way to the group of nin that entered the place and flashed his red eyes at them causing two of four to take a small step back. The light music that had been playing in the dinner stopped, all eyes were now at the door.

"He says you will only find death if you continue, your mission is over and you should go back home." Akane spoke calmly from the table causing the Iwa shinobi to look over at her, when they looked back Naruto was in the face of the leader his smoky arm inches from his face. "I would do as he says, he has a short temper at the moment, not to mention the Demon of The Mists is here as well... you know they tend to get along rather well." The leader let out a snort before the back of his head exploded sending its contents onto the team standing behind him, Naruto turned his smokey hand towards the team that was frozen stiff by what had just happened. "He says last warning leave now." The team of Shinobi looked between each other before dashing out of the door, Naruto sealed the body of the team leader into a scroll, hoping they could pull an ID out of half a head and he could get paid extra for that.

He shook his head lightly at the stinging in his left arm and slowly stood back up after he was done sealing and made his way to the cleaner giving him a very large tip as he moved to sit down at the table once more, he himself was completely clean of any blood. He gave a small sigh that went unheard apart from Akane who to everyone's surprise rested her head on his shoulder, he flinched a little at the contact but quickly settled down when they were done ordering. "I am sorry to say this but we are going to have to split you two up, Crimson here is on a mission to bring the boy back...-"

"And I am looking for an apprentice." Zabuza finished Akane's line of thought, "Me and Crimson go way back, in fact this is the very booth we met in, we got into a bar fight before people thought Crimson was ignoring them, it was pretty simple actually he just doesn't talk, the person who was speaking to him was too drunk to read what he wrote on that note pad of him properly and thought Crimson insulted him, this led to well yeah a bar fight in the end us two were left standing with Kunai at each others throats right here." The nin stated proudly pointing to the table between them all, like Naruto had not just blown the back of someones head off.

"What the man is trying to say is that, the boy will be coming back to Konoha and you will be going with Zabuza... you don't exactly have a choice in the matter but for what it is worth we are sorry that this is being forced upon you and will try to help you out if you need it." Akane put a gentle hand on top of the child.

"My name is Haku... I understand please treat me right." The boy gave a small stiff nod, causing the redhead to grimace, it was like looking at a smaller Naruto, the boy looked so lonely so vulnerable so weak.

"And I am Guren, honestly I do not agree with this but I guess it is better than trying to fend for myself." The bluenette spoke bringing eyes to her, Zabuza gave her a rather harsh pat on the back.

"Crimson says don't worry he Zabuza grows on you." THe bluenette quickly looked up at Akane it was strange hearing someone talk for someone else.

"Why doesn't he speak?" There was a small laugh from Zabuza before his mood became very dark.

"It is something he doesn't talk about, if you become important to him he may tell you." The conversation died down and they had a quick-lunch, Haki and Akane frowning deeply when the waiter brought Zabuza and Naruto a bottle of saké each.

"We should get you both out of those rags, they can't be warm, afterwards will probably hunker down for the night and look at going our different ways in the morning." The two new additions to the group gave a court nod and thanked the two for dinner as they placed the money that was needed down. Heading into the same store they were in just prior Guren picked up what looked to be winter robes while Haku picked out some dark blue Anbu pants and wore a skin tight blue suit underneath, a pair of closed toed Shinobi boots, a dark grey T-shirt and finished it all up by covering up a little more with a traveling cloak.

"Look at you Haku, starting to dress like a Shinobi already?" Akane's cheery tone catching most of them off guard. The small boy looked up at her with a megawatt smile.

"Hai I want to be a ninja, to protect the people I care about." His smile stretched a little wider as he spoke.

"That's a good goal Haku, maybe if we are allowed me and Crimson can give you some pointers, ne?" Naruto gave a small nod from where he stood, the boy reminded him of when he was younger, before Akane's training. "Haku, Guren come with me and Haki, the boys have something they need to do." The group nodded and Zabuza turned to face Naruto who pointed at a figure standing in the street staring at them.

Some silver haired boy with some strange looking nin, they had purple belts tied around their waists. "What do you brats want?" Zabuza being the ever masterful conversationalist.

"We are here for the two bloodline users of your group, Orochimaru-sama wants them." Zabuza rose a non existent eyebrow at the man's statement, a member of the sannin wanted his new apprentice?

"Not going to happen, you will have to get through us first." Zabuza gave a hidden toothy grin his hand reaching for his blade while Naruto drew his Katana kicking up some snow around the pair.

"It seems the rumors are true, Crimson is incapable of speech. Interesting." Naruto flashed his red eyes at the silver haired genin. "My name is Kabuto, I thought I should let you know the name of the person who is going to defeat you."

"Crimson, the silver haired one is mine, you take the other four." Naruto looked at his his opponents some freak with six arms, a redhead, a fatso and some boy girl thing with a hunchback. "I know you like dangerous odds." He gave Naruto a small eye smile and the boy walked forward taking the resistance off of his left hand, he may have to use it this match.

"Look at this shithead thinking he can take on Orochimaru's Elite guard, who the fuck does he think he is?" The redhead, it seemed like she had a foul mouth, there was no need for that in Naruto's books, he got his point across without talking, he let out a tired sigh as she cast a genjutsu merely swiping with his left hand to dispel it. "Go he is caught already, see I told you this piece of shit couldn't beat us!"

The fat one came at him and Naruto pretended he did see it still swiping his left hand in front of him, as the bigger boy came closer to Naruto he waited for him to strike before sidestepping and kicking the boy away angling his foot as to lift him off the ground, he turned his head to see the fat one bounce a few times before coming to a stop, his gaze turned back to the three of this 'Elite Guard' he was bored, sparing against Zabuza was more entertaining than this.

The one with six arms leapt away while throwing these oddly shaped weapons only for Naruto to knock them away with his sword, the hooded boy rolled forward and swept his leg out once he was back on his feet tripping the fat one, one against one they were nothing, together they seemed to be... well not as terrible. He shimmered away showing that he had caught them in a genjutsu, the one with the hunchback looked to the redhead.

"I thought you said he was caught? It seemed like we are caught Tayuya!" The girl now known as Tayuya sent a quick glare to her teammate.

"Shut up freak you haven't done anything yet?!" She pulled a flute out of her kunai holders and brought it up to her lips a sweet sound coming from them. Naruto tilted his head at the sound , he looked around and saw his body had started to melt apart from his smoke covered arm, a frown married his face as he cut the connection to his youki for a second destroying the illusion while he stayed in the stance, watching the boy with the hunchback walk towards him, he put a palm on Naruto only to cop the orange haired boy's smoke fist in his stomach.

"Why can you not put this bastard under Tayuya? CAN YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT?" A smile spread across his face. "How does it feel?" He questioned Naruto who have him a quick shrug noticing that the hunch was gone, his left hand started to twitch a bit before what could be called a twin of the no longer hunched back person fell from his arm, landing on the ground taking deep breaths.

Naruto eyed him for a moment before bringing his katana down and lopping off his head. _'One down, four more to go.' _He deftly kicked up a bundle of snow blinding the charging fat boy for a moment as he lashed out cutting deep into his shins. _'That should keep tubby down for awhile.'_

He let out a small grunt as something hit his left hand, looking down at the ground something golden seemed to have broken against his arm, he gave a small shrug and looked at the tubby one who was now starting to become darker skinned, he didn't have to much time to dwell on that thought though as three zombie like creatures appeared in front of him and he saw the sky suddenly become much darker, looking up a hail of arrows was falling on his area, it would seem they were trying to exhaust every way of him leaving. "Hey Fuck stain, I hope you ain't dead just yet, these three have been waiting to let loose."

Naruto let out a grunt as he got cornered by the zombie things, he had managed to lure them out of the impending rain of arrows but had backed himself to the tree line, finding that they moved much faster than what should be possible, he lifted his sword up to block the incoming strike, he was not expecting it to have so much force behind it, the club burst through his blade like it was a toy and went to strike against his head tearing his hood apart, he shook his head trying to get rid of the pain only to fail and lose his temper.

In a rage he dashed at the club wielding zombie smashing his left hand through its chest, with a guttural roar he tore the beast in half, ripping its club from its hand and holding it in his left, he turned to face the other two and instantly crushed the bandaged one under the club, leaving the one with the bone claws. He gave another small grunt and appeared near the final one only to have it grab the club.

Naruto was starting to get annoyed with these creatures and knew it would not be long until another hail of arrows came, he managed to pull himself out of the way and kick a golden arrow into the head of the final zombie thing, he let out a groan when he looked at his sword but sealed it away, he cut the claws from the dead zombie and stuck them to his left arm much like Zabuza did with his blade and his back. He strode away from the tree line and saw the look of pure rage on the redhead's face and gave her a smirk of his own, one that was visible causing her to scowl at him and attempt to play her flute again, he quickly dashed across the field, it was starting to become a pain, that flute of hers, he would give her props she was a rather good player, but right now he just wanted to tear her apart.

And he would have had it not been for fatass knocking him off course, his body had changed drastically since he last saw the overweight child. He now had warts from the looks of it all over his upper body, his hair had grown longer as well... he gave a small frown and saw the hunchback boy again. "Kidomaru, Jirobo, Tayuya we are pulling back, Kabuto ordered a retreat."

"But we have him Sakon, can't you see he is on his last legs?" The six armed boy started coming out of the tree line where Naruto had just been.

"Kidomaru we are leaving, Orochimaru-sama put Kabuto in charge, that's that, if he says we are leaving we are, pack up." The now known Sakon spoke having a frown on his face, there was something not right about this crimson character.

"Fine fine, was fun fella will see you next time okay?"

"Shut up fuck head, lets just go." It would seem that they were busy arguing with themselves, and didn't exactly notice that Naruto had started to sway. He watched as the four left and couldn't be happier, the hit to his head slowed him down something crazy, he felt his body start to full forward only to be flipped into the air and still ended up landing on something.

"Eh I got ya Crimmy, lets get back the girls and get that thing patched up, looks like it may scar." Naruto nodded dumbly on the man's shoulder, he really just wanted to go to bed.

* * *

A week had passed since the showdown between Naruto and who would come to be known as the sound four, he had yet to report anything back to Konoha and they were starting to get a little worried, but if you were to look into this classroom right now you would never be able to tell, as two girls fought for the right to sit next to the _precious _Sasuke-kun, Iruka had gotten more then fed up with the antics of his class, he was glad that he only had them for a few more months, he cleared his throat stopping the arguing as it would seem that the pink haired girl won the fight yet again.

"Spirits are strange creatures, some say they are the link to summoning scrolls, others believe they were once human, when asked they say that they can not remember being human but don't rule it out as a possibility. In the end it is-" Sadly he was interrupted by the pink haired girl.

"Sensei can you tell us about... ah I think it was Jinchuuriki? That is what that boy said right?" Iruka seemed to pale a little from the question, he had talked about what to do if this was asked, but seeing as Naruto revealed the secret it could now be taught but was not required.

"Ahh yes I can Sakura, but it is up to you how you handle this information... basically jinchuuriki are the containers of bijuu like the Kyuubi, now before you yell and shout, no it was not killed, if you remember Naruto, he contains the Kyuubi and acts as its jailor keeping the beast locked away, that being said he does have the ability to use its energy, this has lead to them being labeled as weapons for the village, a lot of people tend to see them as the demons themselves, but I ask you to look at it this way, if a kunai is sealed into a scroll, does that scroll become the kunai?" He heard the students talking about it before they all shook their head as a no.

"My parents say that he is a bad influence and shouldn't be allowed to be a shinobi." A random student called out causing Iruka to sigh, he couldn't outright say their parents were wrong as jinchuuriki were a rather grey subject, it was more up to how you saw them then anything.

"Like I said, it is up to you what you do with the information I give you, I personally do not see him as a bad influence and in fact am glad he became a shinobi he is working hard to keep this village safe, even though some treat him like the plague." His tone was lazy but the students saw the subtle jib at that kids parents.

* * *

A few hours had passed and Crimson could be seen walking up to the Hokage's office, his 'hood' drawn as he passed the mans attendant without a word and knocked on the door only entering after he was given the ok. "Naruto-kun, why are you wearing a genjutsu?" The boy released it his hood vanishing and showing the scar he had running across his eye from the zombie's club.

"We got into a bit of a scuffle, but the mission is complete, he would also ask that you call him Crimson, when the village stops being so pig headed he will go back to using his own name." The old Kage grimaced but nodded nonetheless, he filled his pipe with tobacco and lit it with a small katon jutsu, Naruto dropped a file onto his desk, he assumed it to be the mission report and was not disappointed.

"So little Haku, what are we to do with you?" The boy took a proud step forward and pointed his thumb to his chest.

"I want to grow up to be strong like Nii-san and Nee-chan, I want to be a Shinobi to protect them and live their lives." Hiruzen gave a stern nod and started fumbling around in his desk.

"Crimson says we can take the boy in if you need, give him a place to live and the likes." Hiruzen gave a small frown, he wanted to be able to do it, but he had to think about both sides here, he honestly doubted Naruto was ready to help raise a child, let alone what may happen, it would be right at this moment that a silver haired jounin appeared in the window.

"If you are thinking about him being in a stable environment, you don't have to worry I told them that I won't be taking a team no matter what they say unless he is on it, if he dies I won't be training the Uchiha, I believe that the missions won't be as hard anymore." Naruto had a small frown on his face, he didn't need anyone other than Akane looking out for him, he looked over to the girl who gave a relieved sigh.

"Hey come on not all of us have supper bodies like you, I can actually get tired you know?" He gave a small scoff that was all she needed to hear right now, glad to get him out of his little funk.

"I want to live with Nii-san and Nee-chan." Haku stated as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Well ok I will need them to fill out these forms for you then seeing as they are your legal guardians." Naruto smirked when he got his file, Akane got the slightly smaller adoption file while he had the academy registration. Again he quickly flew through it handing it back to the man before taking the papers from Akane and filling them in himself only taking a few more minutes. Hiruzen read over them both for a few minutes before giving a nod. "Ok it seems to be in order, I will send someone around later with his schedule."

"Crimson says to have them leave it in the mailbox, he plans on getting Haku some shinobi gear and giving him a head start on training." Hiruzen gave another nod and a 'ok'.

"You can leave and put the genjutsu up again." Naruto, Haku and Akane gave a court bow and left Naruto applying his genjutsu, Kakashi waited for the door to close before turning to face Hiruzen.

"How many does that make now?" It was a simple question and could be taken in many ways, sadly Hiruzen knew exactly what he was talking about.

"23-B, 48-A and 1-S, I would say he is ready for the jounin exam, but I can not do such a thing without him being a chunin first, I can not promote him on the field as no one can vouch for his performance, if you don't take him as a student I fear he will be the first ever kage level genin." Kakashi gave a tired sigh and leant against the wall stroking his chin.

* * *

"Now Haku-chan we need to pick up a new hood for Nii-san first ok?" The small boy beamed as he ate the ice cream that had just bought him, Akane sent a worried look at Naruto, his feelings were all over the place at the moment, it was not boding well. Naruto looked at her and tapped his sealing scroll, she gave a small sigh and he handed a pouch full of money. "Change of plans Haku-chan, we are going shopping, it seems Nii-san has some errands he needs to run." Haku gave a small frown but ran up and gave Naruto a hug causing him to go stiff.

"Be safe Nii-san, we will see you at home ok?" Naruto gave him a nod and a small thumbs up before turning on his feet and heading to the one store that might be able to fix his blade, it wasn't long before he found himself walking through the doors the small bell chiming as he entered.

"Welcome to 10 out of 10 weapons, my name is Tenten and what can we do for you today?" He walked up to the counter and place his broken blade on it causing the girl's eyes to go wide, he quickly wrote down something on his notepad and stuck it with the blade as he made to look around the store, Tenten moved over to the blade and saw the note.

_'I was wondering if you would be able to fix this, I have fond with this blade and do not want to have to replace it, I am willing to pay almost anything to have it back in usable condition~ Crimson Dancer.' _Tenten spun on her heels and looked at the man again, she had heard a lot about him, sadly she didn't know his real name, not many did, he slowly came back over holding a few pouches of Kunai, Shuriken and Senbon along with a sturdy Tanto. He placed them all onto the counter and watched as the added up the pieces of it all.

"The total comes to 30,000 Ryo Crimson-san." Naruto gave her a nod and handed over the required amount, it was of little concern how much it cost, with the bank account of his parents not to mention his own savings, he was quite wealthy. "I do not know about your sword, my father is out at the moment I can ask him when he returns, if you come back tomorrow you will have your answer though." He pulled out his notepad again as she started packing his order away.

_'Thank you Tenten, have a nice day.' _He took his order and left the store leaving Tenten to stare at the blade on the counter, she didn't even know how much time had passed when a pair of hands started to examine the blade, she looked up and saw her father giving it a critical eye.

"This blade, I don't know if I can fix it, I don't have any of the steel that it is made from, if they are happy to wait I can have it shipped in." Tenten gave her father the note to go with it and he gave a small frown, he thought nothing bad of the boy, he was just unhappy that it meant so much to him, he hated it when a blade that meant something broke, he knew it could sometimes have an affect on the wielder. "For Crimson I will try my best, Kami knows he deserves it, Tenten get my dealer on the phone." The small panda like girl gave her father a bow and did as she was told.

* * *

"Hey Haku-chan guess who is back?" The boy turned around in his new attire, it seemed like standard Anbu gear but with a cloth mask to cover his face.

"Nii-san! Hey Nii-san I kinda look like you." Naruto gave him a small smile even though he couldn't see it and patted him on the head, he strapped the newly acquired pouches on the kids and placed the small Tanto on his back. (Picture little Kakashi from Kakashi Gaiden.) "This is so cool Nii-san, I cant wait to practice with it."

"Nii-san says we have to stop by a book store on the way home, sometimes brawn is not the way to go, we need to make sure you have a good head on you too Haku-chan, and an even better heart." Naruto looked at Akane who met his gaze even though she couldn't see past his hood.

_"Must you really call me Nii-san?" _She put her hands on her hips and steeled her eyes a little.

_"What would you rather him call you Crimson like everyone else?" _Naruto seemed to maul her thought over for a little bit, _"You know what forget I asked, he needs a male figure to look up to, I would rather it be you than anyone else ok?" _

Naruto knew he had lost this fight, Akane had taken the boy under her wing and started treating him like a little brother while he recovered, he found it strange to see her so caring, at first he thought it may have just been a stage but then a week had passed and she was still this way, there was something that she wasn't telling him, he didn't feel like it concerned him though so he would not prod.

The group moved through the streets coming to their destination, it was not long until they were met by the smell of paper causing Naruto to sigh, he had grown fond of books they would always be there for him when he needed them. "Haku-chan Nii-san says we are going to get you information on all of the basics, that way you can choose which style suits you best, for example Nii-san is a ken/genjutsu user and I mainly focus on Ninjutsu." The boy nodded and followed Naruto around the store as he slowly formed a pile of books. The two boys made their way to the counter with Naruto holding ten textbooks that pretty much covered everything he would be taught in the academy.

"Your total comes to 15,000 Ryo sir." The server spoke through gritted teeth, it would seem some people could not get the hint that he was not the Kyuubi, at least she was not over charging him, he guessed that the Hokage must have changed some laws while he was gone. Akane walked around the corner and hugged Haku against her while looping an arm around Naruto's right one.

Naruto gave the required money and Haku and Akane both gave her a sweet smile. "Thank you very much, we hope you have a nice day." Once they were out of the store Akane turned to Naruto and the two had a small private conversation, she gave a small sigh but nodded none the less taking a hold of Haku's hand. "Come on Haku-chan, lets go grab some dinner while Nii-san finishes up his business and we will meet back at the house ok?" Haku looked over to Naruto and gave him a megawatt smile.

"Don't take too long Nii-san."

* * *

Naruto played around with the pouch of money he had just obtained, it would seem he killed Iwa's Goat, honestly he thought that the moniker was stupid, the man deserved to die from being called that. He was making his way down the road not exactly paying attention and he felt someone bump into him, he looked down at the figure, purple spiky hair was what stood out the most, he choice of clothing well he found it inappropriate. "You should watch where you are going shit stain." He really hated people with foul mouths.

He didn't even bother to pull out his notepad and say sorry, if she was going to be rude than it was not really of his concern. He continued on his path, this irked the person he ran into. "Your not even going to say sorry?" Naruto thought about it, but he honestly couldn't really be bothered dealing with her right now. "Of course you wouldn't, you are just like everybody else." His brow twitched and he shimmered from her view appeared behind her holding her arms tight with a Kunai pressed up against her jugular, he created a sealless shadow clone and had it write on the note pad.

_'You think I am like everyone else?! You wench... Yes I fight for this village, but they won't remember me, they hate me, you should choose your words carefully and keep that mouth of yours inline or I will remove your ability to talk.' _She had no choice but to read it as the note was held up in front of her eyes, the clone flashed its red eyes to make sure the message got across. _'I may have said sorry if you weren't so rude, but if you are going to act like a child while wearing that headband you should give up now, you are an adult so act like one.' _After reading the second note he let go of her and the illusion fell showing she was all by herself in the middle of the road.

Naruto shook his head and continued on his path home, he wouldn't let his attention waver this time, it didn't take him much longer until he opened the front door and heard the laughter of Akane and Haku, he fought back the urge to smile, he quickly walked past causing Haku to frown as he and Akane set the table, Naruto walked up to his room and got changed into a pair of grey sweats and a simple crimson T, he walked down the stairs and sat at the table along with the others. "Haku and myself thought we could give Ramen a try, I mean it isn't often that we get take out so it is nice to have a change right?"

Haku looked up hopefully to Naruto who had a smile on his face and gave a small nod as he broke apart the chopsticks and quickly dug in, it was nice, but he couldn't picture eating it every day, it just didn't have the appeal to him as a huge chunk of meat, Naruto looked over to his partner and saw her eating with grace, it was strange, the way they worked alongside one another, it was strange to say the least, they were enemies she made that clear, but they didn't act like it, he didn't know what to think of her anymore and it was starting to get on his nerves.

"Nii-san after dinner do you think you can show me how to throw the weapons you got me?" Akane looked over to see Naruto's reaction and was please to see him give a small nod and a smile to the younger boy.

"He said he will also show you which books you should start with Haku-chan." Haku beamed at the attention he was getting, he loved his nee-chan, and he respected his nii-san, he didn't know nii-san's proper name but nee-chan told him not many did and he shouldn't really worry about it, he would know when he was ready, Naruto stood from the table now that they were done and collected the dishes putting them away in the sink, he went over to the bags of books and pulled out three placing them on the table. 'History of the Five great nations, Taijutsu basics and Battles from History.'

"He says those three are important and you should get them read when you have the chance, a dumb shinobi is a dead one, it is a harsh saying but it is true from what we have seen." Haku nodded to his older sister and saw from the corner of his eye his older brother pulling things out of the large scroll he kept on his back.

"Wow, Nee-chan what is Nii-san doing?" The boy asked in awe, watching as Naruto pulled out a few pouches of throwing weapons.

"Thats fuinjutsu Haku-chan, it is a very advanced art that we can look at starting to teach you once you complete the basics if you wish?" He nodded with vigor at his sister and watched as Naruto waved them both to follow, the orange haired man strapped two of the pouches to his legs and another on the back of his left shoulder. "The positioning of your pouches it important as if they are to far away you will be at a disadvantage when you go to throw, see Nii-san's are strapped within his arm lengths, from memory the pouch on his right leg is shuriken, the one on his left leg is senbon and the one on his shoulder is kunai, now senbon are useful for disabling an opponent but can also be a handy way to get poison into a body, shuriken are for when you are trying to do some damage and Kunai are normally used when going for the kill but they can also be used for defense, for example to parry a blow from a blade like your tanto."

Naruto got into a loose stance and Haku tried to mimic him only for his stance to be rigid. "You need to loosen up Haku-chan, Nii-san's stance if effective but you need to keep your body loose so you can get more power behind your throws." Haku quickly shook himself off and drew a kunai from his pouch holding it by the ring the same way that his Nii-san did. He saw Naruto's body move around the kunai in slow motion before his wrist gave a small flick and it shot through the training dummy.

"Wow Nii-san that was so cool." Naruto moved over to Haku and fixed up the small errors in his stance, he manipulated Haku's body through the throw and even did the small flick of the wrist watching as the Kunai hit the target in front of them. "There was so many things my body had to do at once, I didn't notice how hard it would be, Nii-san made it look so easy."

"Haku-chan don't be down on yourself, Nii-san has been training for almost 8 years now, he has had a lot of time to get used to it, after a while your body will start to move on its own, its called muscle memory and in the shinobi life repetition is both your friend and enemy." Haku gave a small nod and got into the stance along with Naruto again, both slowly moving through two resounding hits were heard and the boys checked it out, Haku had hit the target all by himself while Naruto's had gone straight through again. "See you did it Haku-chan keep practicing and one day you may even be able to throw weapons better than Nii-san."

Haku was still checking where his Kunai had landed, Naruto had to admit it was good for a first try with a strange stance, he was a little proud of the boy something that Akane made sure to tell Haku who looked from his mark to Naruto with a smile on his face. "Don't worry Nii-san soon I will be able to help you guys."

"Very good Haku-chan very good, now Nii-san is going to show you a Kata that you need to learn ok?" Haku snapped to attention and faced Naruto.

"Hai Nii-sensei, I am ready." Naruto went through the movements with Akane explaining what he was doing each step. Haku didn't really see the point of this and that was when Naruto gave him a small smirk, he walked them over to a different area this one had dummies all around them instead of just in front, Akane warned Haku not to step into the circle and to just watch from the outside, the boy saw Naruto start to go through the kata again only this time using the weapons he had in his pouches, he now understood what those strange strikes with the palms were for, they were not strikes at all they were meant to be used to throw the weapons causing Haku to grimace slightly at not picking that up when they were going through it.

He was marveled at the end and thought that these dummies had to be harder than the rest seeing as Nii-san's throws were not going through them, each one had a kunai where he figured someones heart would be. "That is why you are learning the Kata Haku-chan, it is one that Nii-san made himself and works well when dealing with many enemies." Naruto came and patted Haku on the back with his good arm and lead him back to the training field they were originally in quickly pulling his notepad from nowhere and jotting down the positions in the Kata's and the throws. He handed them to Haku who was glad to see that they were sketches of the Naruto and him doing them together from different angles.

"Thank you Nii-san." Haku ran up and hugged Naruto, he was worried about what to do but slowly hugged the boy back, both of the missed the loving smile that the redhead gave them.

* * *

**PA: Now who wants to take a guess at who will be the one to make Naruto speak again? I really enjoyed writing this chapter and the week that Akane Haku and Naruto spent together will come in time, until next time though R&R please and Ja ne.**


	5. Team selection Off to Wave

**PA: Here is chapter 5, this one is set a 3 months after the last and has a smaller time skip of about 3 weeks a little further in.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, wish I did... man that would be awesome...**

**thor94: I want to say quickly that the Haku mission was not his S-rank that will be brought into play later, it will be something that I don't think many will be expecting.**

**Wave mission is going to be a little different, I don't really want to give _too_ much away as it may spoil it or I could change what I am planing to do with the mission, what I can say though is that Zabuza's blade will still get used throughout the story.**

* * *

Months had passed, Naruto often left on a quick C or B rank for a few days but returned unharmed and with more money for the group, as far as Haku's training was going, the boy was a prodigy much like Naruto had been, he had taken to using throwing weapons and covering them with a thin layer of water to add extra range to his ninjutsu, Akane was proud of how far he had come, as was Naruto who was taking time out of his day to spar with the boy when a group of Anbu came to him, of course this was the only group in the village that was able to enter his house, after the incident with H.S and the parcel he changed the seals around the gates and walls, something the Hokage was not to happy about as the property became impenetrable to his crystal ball.

"Crimson-san you are _asked_ to show up to the academy tomorrow at 11." He wasn't wearing his hood as he was not expecting to be interrupted, this meant that the Anbu could see how much he disapproved of what was _asked_ from him. "It is an order from the Hokage, it would seem that you are getting your team." Naruto gave a snort in return and went back to sparing Haku, Akane went to the Anbu to converse with them.

"You will have to forgive him, he is not a big fan of teams, after his sensei was _taken_ from him last time, he has closed off so to speak, I will make sure he is there tomorrow though." THe purple haired Anbu turned to face her.

"Thank you Red, let him know that some of us still care about him." Her tone held a hint of concern that Akane made sure to make a note of. Red was the name given to her by the Hokage so people would be able to call her something when they were talking, he himself found it confusion to talk to Akane when he was talking to Naruto, it gave him a headache.

"Also we would prefer if you gave us some warning before you drop around, he hates people seeing his face, but yes I will be sure to let him know Neko." Akane gave a small bow and dismissed them from the property, she had to convince him to go tomorrow, that was a task in itself. Looking over at Naruto she frowned as he picked up Haku, said young boy asking him why he only used one arm. Naruto wrote something on the paper for him to read, he gave a small nod and Naruto burned the paper, the orange haired shinobi motioned for them to go in the house, Akane followed behind them, she couldn't keep the frown from her face or the sigh from escaping her lips.

* * *

_"You know that they will either be squealing little fans or will hate me right?" _Naruto questioned the redhead walking beside him as they entered the academy gates they had half an hour before they were meant to be here, right now Naruto was regretting letting her talk him into it.

_"It will be fine, I honestly think you worry too much, plus you need a team to get a promotion, you know the council will not let you get it any other way." _The hooded shinobi gave a snort as he walked through the halls, wearing his coat from the trip to get Haku back, his hands hidden in his sleeves. _"Hey, try to think of them like Haku, I know you enjoyed spending time with him." _She didn't need to see his face to know he was frowning, his hand reached the door and slid it open.

"Team 7 will consist of 'Crimson', Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, your instructor will be Hatake Kakashi." The room looked to the door to see the hooded figure standing next to a redhead. "It would seem that you two are early, welcome Red, Crimson, if you two didn't hear you are on Team 7." Naruto covered Akane's mouth already knowing her hatred for the Uchiha, he gave a small bow and forced Akane to as well, he gave her a stern look and flashed his red eyes.

"We will just take a seat until this is all over." Iruka gave a small nod.

"Team 7's unique make up is because we didn't have enough students pass to make a full team, so they are getting a member that has been a genin for a few years now." There were murmurs around the classroom, some not believing the fact that 'Crimson' was just a genin, Naruto looked at Sasuke and saw the glare he was receiving, he put his hand up in a pistol shape and fired it at the Uchiha before bringing it under the hood to blow the smoke away. Naruto already knew who was on his team so he tuned out the rest of the announcements, only when the scared chunin put his notepad down did he start to pay attention again. "Have a break for a few hours, your jounin will be here after lunch, you can spend this time getting to know your teammates." With that the chunin walked from the room, Naruto looked around and saw the Inuzuka clan head coming up to him, he could respect their clan, they had honor and loyalty.

"Hey Red my name is Kiba, I know we aren't on the same teams or anything but I was wondering if we could you know grab some lunch?" Akane looked between Kiba and Naruto before giving a small laugh.

"I am Crimson's spirit..." Crimson was now behind Kiba resting his hand on the newly appointed genin's shoulder. "He likes your clan, not you though, he also hopes your dog is not as dumb as its owner." She spun around on her feet and walked towards the door, Naruto shimmering into existence next to her.

They reached the door and a loud smack was heard, turning around they saw the Uchiha glaring down at them from his desk. "Fight me dobe, last time you just got lucky!" Naruto made a motion for the Uchiha to come with his hand, Sasuke jumped across his desk and charged at Naruto only for the hooded nin to quickly put him on the ground with his katana poised to run through the genin's head.

"Like last time, you are not worth our time, we are teammates now, it would be bad if we were to kill you, grow up Uchiha you are no match for Crimson." Naruto put his blade away and walked out of the door Akane following behind him, they heard someone slam their fist against the ground and figured it to be the Uchiha.

"H-he was so fast." Stuttered out the Inuzuka heir having seen the whole event. "If that is a genin what are we?" Sakura quickly tried to help up the Uchiha only for him to push her away.

"He got lucky Sasuke must of slipped is all." Kiba looked at her with disbelief, the Uchiha hadn't slipped, he saw Crimson reach for his blade and saw a blur that went right around the Uchiha before he ended up on the ground, Kiba shook his head to get rid of the thought, he would go see his teammates, yeah that would be best. With that thought in mind he gave a small nod and left the room.

Sasuke slammed his hand against the ground again glaring down at it. "Why am I still weak?"

* * *

_"In his own twisted way Kakashi was right, it has been two years and now we are stuck with the Uchiha brat, remember Akane we can not kill him, as much as you want to." _ Naruto thought to her as he sipped on his coffee, it was one of the few joys he had in this world, Akane had found out the hard way that no one comes between her partner and his coffee, Zabuza wanted to test the theory and found the results to be worth it in his opinion.

_"I know, I hate it, I fucking hate that we can't but if we have to put up with him for a few years till you get promoted than I can handle it." _Naruto tilted his head at her, he knew what was really going to happen, she was going to bitch at him the entire time and drive him up the wall, he was going to hate every moment. It soon became time for them to head back to the classroom, Naruto knew there was a good chance that they would have to wait for some time, so he unsealed a deck of cards, a chessboard and a timmer, a boy with long brown haired that was styled to look like a pineapple made his way over to the two.

"It is probably going to be troublesome but what are you two planning on doing? Names Shikamaru by the way." Naruto looked between the boy and the board, he figured the boy to be a Nara, he pointed the cards at him then at the board asking Akane to move over to give him some room.

"Crimson finds that chess is too easy, so now he plays a card game at the same time, it says it helps to teach you to make strategies while under pressure, the aim of the card game is to keep placing cards down, when two of the same card come up, lets say two 7's you need to collect the cards quickly before your opponent does, all this while playing speed chess." The Nara tilted his head to the side and took half the deck the was given to him.

"It sounds troublesome but I can see the aim behind it." With that they started, Shikamaru lost hopelessly the first few rounds, he was slowly coming back in the third round until some troublesome blonde started squealing in his ear, a bearded man sat down next to the small group.

"Whats the point of playing them both at the same time?" Naruto looked to Akane who quickly explained it to the man. "Ah place your focus on different points, much like you would out in the field, did you think of this yourself boy?" Naruto gave him a small nod and snapped his hand down on top of the cards taking them away from the Nara who had just started to move his hand. Without looking Naruto took one of Shikamaru's knights with a pawn causing the Nara to sigh in defeat, that knight was all that was saving him from checkmate, he tilted his king over showing he had lost again. "I like it, now I am Team 10's instructor so now that you two are done, I think I will take Shikamaru off of your hands." Naruto gave a nod and put his hand out for the Nara to shake.

"Thanks man, it wasn't as troublesome as I thought, you are actually a very good player." He shook Naruto's hand and gave a small wave as his group left, that left Team's 7 and 8 in the room, he didn't exactly have time for either of the teams and sat down motioning for Akane to join him at the board. His ears twitching taking in the conversation of Team 8.

"That Crimson, h-he has a build up of chakra in his left a-" Her words were cut off as a kunai imbedded itself in the wall beside her holding a single strand of hair, he held a finger up to his mouth in the shush position telling her all she needed to know.

"Those pesky eyes should be used to scout enemies not comrades Hyuuga." Akane sneered at her, letting out a groan as she watched one of her castles being taking by Naruto's bishop. It continued on for some time, Naruto knew she didn't like this but he did it so she would be able to think on her feet more often he didn't want to be the only one on the team to think of ways to win their fights. Team 8 was collected by their jounin and Naruto shrugged his shoulders before putting his head down on the desk and going to sleep, it would seem that Kakashi was late yet again. He let out a small groan as he awoke three hours later to Akane prodding his side with her finger.

He saw the silver haired man looking at him, both just started at each other for a time Sakura and Sasuke were smart enough not to intervene. "It's been awhile."

"You have no idea." Akane shot back for Naruto already knowing how he felt about that matter. "We are glad to be working with you again, you are a better choice than anyone else for us." Kakashi gave a nod and motioned to the other two.

"Meet us on the roof tops." The other three vanished in a shunshin leaving the two fresh genin out of the loop, and making them walk all the way to the top. Naruto Kakashi and Akane all took a seat on one of the benches on the roof top. "So you're still not talking?" He gave a small nod to Kakashi."Whats changed since we last spoke." Akane clapped her hands together.

"We adopted a child and are teaching him to be a shinobi, he is a real prodigy, like he was." At the last part she motioned back to Naruto with a smile on her face.

"So what you two are together?" Akane quickly hid her blush before stomping down on the silver headed man's foot.

"N-no you pervert, we were just the only two available at the time and had already made a connection to the boy." She gave a small huff and saw Naruto laying down on the bench like nothing had happened. "I swear that you are trying to make him angry Kakashi."

"Well it would be good to see some emotion from him, you know people are starting to think Crimson is devoid of it all." You could see the frown on his face his mask not hiding it. The tone quickly changed as foot steps could be heard climbing the stairs. Naruto didn't even bother sitting up just intent on laying down on the bench. "Well now that we are all here how about we introduce ourselves?" The pinkette of the team looked confused at his statement.

"Why don't you show us how its done Sensei?" Three people all had the same thought going through their head. _'Is she serious?' _ Kakashi rose his hand to his head and lent against it, Akane seeing the subtle facepalm that went with the movement.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, I like a few things, I don't really not like anything, and my goals for the future well I don't feel like telling you that." Sasuke and Sakura just looked at their sensei while thinking, _'So we know his name?' _Naruto and Akane both just thought _'Classic Kakashi strikes again.' _"Pinkie your turn."

"The name is Haruno Sakura not Pinkie, I like *turns to face Sasuke* I dislike people who don't think things through properly and my goal for the future is to *Turns to face Sasuke and squeals.*" Sasuke turned to look at the ground and Kakashi looked at Naruto who looked...asleep. _'Great a fangirl.' _Kakashi motioned for Sasuke to go next, he gave an arrogant smirk.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I don't really like anything, I hate many things, I do not have a dream for the future as mine is an ambition, to kill a certain someone." _'An avenger.' _Kakashi pointed at Naruto who didn't even bother moving.

"Thats Crimson... Ok well you can call me Red, I like Haku-chan and Crimson-san, I hate Uchiha's and fangirls, my dream for the future I really don't know, I haven't thought too much into it." Sasuke and Sakura looked between the two, both a little angry what 'Red' had said.

"Does Crimson not have a tongue or something? Is he unable to speak for himself or is he just scared to in the presence of an Elite?" Before anyone could move to stop him Naruto was now holding Sasuke by his throat over the edge of the building, he gave a red flash of his eyes and dropped him. Sasuke panicked as he fell to the ground, he tried to slow himself on the side of the building but only ended up tearing his hand open, just before he hit the ground he woke up with a huge pain in his back looking up at the sky.

"He says he finds it hard for you to be an Elite when you can not even break out of a genjutsu Uchiha." Kakashi saw where this was headed and knew Naruto's genjutsu to be rather unique, he moved between the group and waved his hands defensively.

"Ma ma guys, there is no need to fight, Crimson does not speak because of something that happened, he will only explain it if you gain his trust, now anyway I will see you all tomorrow bright and early at 7 am for the true genin test." He hid a small smirk behind his mask at the expressions of Sasuke and Sakura.

"If you two thought that little exam was all it took to see if you could make it as a ninja then you should give up now, that was to weed out the hopeless cases so they didn't waste a jounin's time, everyone after that is a genin hopeful." She looked over to Naruto who had gone back to his bench and looked to be asleep again.

"Red is right, if you guys fail tomorrow you will be sent back to the academy and have to wait until the next set of exams to try again. So like I said bright and early tomorrow and at 7 training ground and time ok? Also I would advise you not to eat breakfast or you will throw it up." With that Kakashi vanished in a swirl of leaves, Crimson and Akane in swirls of fire and Sakura tried talking to Sasuke to see if he was doing anything for the rest of the day."

* * *

Naruto and Akane had just finished training Haku, they told him about their team and the boy said they sounded pathetic causing Akane to laugh and naruto to give a proud smile to his younger brother/son. They were sitting in the kitchen and the clock struck 9, they said their goodbyes to Haku and wished him good luck for the day telling him what to read up on and where the food would be for lunch, the boy gave a small bow and headed to his room grabbing a few scrolls and walking back to the training yard.

Wearing their outfits from their trip to pick up Haku the duo made their way to training ground 7 seeing that Sasuke and Sakura were already waiting, they could already hear the grumbling of someones stomach and they were still a good 30 feet away. "You two are late!" The pink haired banshee screamed at them causing Naruto to flinch at her tone, his ears were sensitive after all.

"I do not see sensei here yet do you? Infact I would say that we still have 5 minutes before he shows up, now if you would be a dear and stop shouting before I rip your vocal cords from your throat that would be helpful." Akane had a sickly sweet smile on her face while she talked to Sakura, the girl seemed oddly quiet after that and like Akane said no more than five minutes later Kakashi walked up to the group acting like he was on time and not 3 hours late.

"Yo, I hope you four are ready. Now the objective is to get these bells from me by 1, if you can not do that you will be sent back to the academy." Sakura and Sasuke looked at the mentioned bells and found it odd that there were only 2. When the point was vocalized Kakashi gave a small chuckle. "Oh one of you will fail, and seeing as Red is Crimson's spirit they count for one person. Now begin." Sakura and Sasuke ran away to hide while Naruto and Akane stayed still in front of Kakashi.

Once the two were in position they saw what seemed to be Kakashi and Akane talking while Naruto stayed standing still watching the two. "What is he doing?" Sasuke mused to himself quietly.

"That baka is just too scared to try to do this right." The pink haired teammate stated proudly not that anyone would hear her.

"Kakashi there is a genjutsu over the area so the other two will only see us all talking, the real reason is that he wants to see how strong you have become, he is not interested in the bells and he knows that you can not send us back to the academy as we have already completed our first mission, and we all know the rules." Kakashi took on his battle stance and Naruto's hand slid towards his blade.

"Once a team completes their first mission they can not be sent back to the academy... unless they are responsible for the death of a teammate, in which case they may be subject to remedial classes or will be locked away deemed unfit for duty. I understand, now are we going to sit around or are we going to fight you troublesome Orange haired boy?" Naruto drew his blade and pointed it at Kakashi before shimmering away and appearing next to the jounin's side, Kakashi was only able to dodge the strike on instinct. "Well I guess I may need to use this eye after all." His hand reached up pulling his headband away showing his sharingan eye, he could see they were standing in a multitude of genjutsu, he just didn't know which was which and didn't want to dispel the one that would keep this fight hidden.

He noticed a disturbance in the air beside him and pulled out a kunai to parry Naruto's strike launching a kick at the hooded genin only for him to turn to smoke, the jounin gritted his teeth, as an army of the came to form in front of him all stepping out of the air, this genjutsu was really starting to get on his nerves, the clones started dashing towards him the sight looked like they were skating across the ground as they closed in on the jounin before dancing around him leaving a layer of cuts through his top, none of them were too deep and each one only stung a little, looking around he was still not able to find where the original was.

He frowned as another wave came at him, he channeled lightning to his hand and dashed through the clones dispelling them as he went, in the end he came face to face with what he thought was the creator only for him to dispel as well. Looking around in shock he saw one last one standing where he just was, his red eyes flashed and Kakashi no longer felt injured looking down he saw that the cuts were gone but the mark he created with his chidori was still there.

"I said he covered the area in genjutsu Kakashi, not yourself, you need to look beneath the underneath, those are your words after all right?" Naruto put his blade away and moved to the tree line Akane staying in place for a few moments. "He figured out your test and although he wants them to fail because he doesn't think much of them, he still wants to reach the chunin exams." In a flash she was by his side again passing through the trees as the genjutsu dropped, showing the scar from the jutsu.

Sasuke gasped at the mark that suddenly appeared as Kakashi changed places, part of him wondering what happened to Crimson, the man was not there when the mark appeared does that mean he is dead? Did Kakashi kill their teammate? He found a hand covering his mouth and looked up to see Red standing above him, meaning that the hand must be Crimson's. "Listen Uchiha, I may hate your guts but I want Crimson to reach the chunin exams, so the answer behind Kakashi's test is teamwork, I mean have you ever heard of a genin besting a jounin?" Naruto looked up to Akane and saw the sigh she gave him. She was right his battles against Zabuza were not really told to anyone.

The Uchiha nodded hesitantly and Naruto moved his hand away from his mouth. "Ok so we need to work together right?" Naruto and Akane gave him a small nod. "That means we need *shudders* Sakura." Akane shuddered but nodded nonetheless.

"It will be a pain but we do this together also here is a bell." Sasuke looked up in confusion.

"I-I'm not even going to ask, thanks I guess?" The two nodded and turned on their feet traveling slower so that Sasuke could keep up with their pace. It was not long until they saw the terrible hiding job of Sakura.

Like before Naruto dropped down and covered her mouth his grip a little tighter as he figured she would squirm under his hold, Sasuke dropping down in front of her and Akane above her. "Listen Sakura, we need to work together to pass this test." He nodded to Naruto to let go of her now and the pinkette took in a deep breath before looking up to Sasuke.

"That is brilliant Sasuke-kun, I am sure me and you can take him if we work together. How did you ever figure it out?" Akane burst out in laughter and nearly fell from the tree she was standing in, Naruto looked disappointed under his hood.

"When I said work together I mean as a team, all four of us, also I was not the one that thought of it, they were." He motioned to Naruto and Akane who both gave a small bow.

"No way they are just clanless slobs, stop trying to give them credit Sasuke-kun." She felt a quick slap across her cheek and looked up to see Sasuke looking down on her.

"You too are a 'clanless slob' Sakura, I said that they thought of it, that means they did, now let's get this down the less I see of you the better." Sakura was almost too shocked to notice the bell that struck her forehead she looked down at the ground at the bell before gasping in shock.

"You will need that." She looked up to the owner of the voice seeing the long red hair turn away from her and walk back towards the clearing coming face to face with Kakashi standing beside Naruto while Sasuke stood slightly behind them, Sakura quickly caught up and took her place behind them as well.

"Well, well you finally look like you may have it." Akane told the two to show their bells which they happily did and Kakashi quickly looked down at his belt where he had tied them seeing that two were still there, the 'bells' on his belt turned into clones of Naruto and quickly took a hold of him, while the original walked up to Kakashi and took his favourite orange book, holding it like it smelt bad.

"So you figured it out yet kakashi-_sensei_?" Akane asked really stressing the last part, Kakashi gave a quick nod and looked to Naruto.

"Please leave my book alone, I can see that when it counts you will help your team... even if it is for selfish reasons." Naruto looked at him and motioned for him to continue. "And you all pass." Naruto through the book back to Kakashi and the jounin walked forward to collect the bells from his other genin, the clones holding him dispelled now by Naruto. "Well lets meet back here tomorrow at 9 and do some training before going on a mission? The group of genin gave a stiff nod and left the clearing while Kakashi went to report his findings to the Hokage.

* * *

Weeks had come to pass and Naruto was more than fed up with this team, he found training Haku to be more of a challenge than the missions they were sent on or when he spared against his teammates, all in all he found them pathetic excuses for Shinobi. Of course he did not verbalise his detest for his teammates, sadly if only someone could take a page from his book than maybe just maybe they would not be stuck doing these ridiculous 'team building' exercises. He could not have been more pleased when Kakashi told them that was enough for the day, his pleasure was quickly thrown out the window though when the jounin said they would be heading to the mission office.

In all honesty Naruto was actually starting to miss his village trying to kill him, at least than he could get a workout. It didn't take his team long to reach the mission house, they were about to shove another D-rank onto his team but he had enough, he slammed his hands on the Hokage's desk and glared at the man, Hiruzen looked down at him with an uninterested look. "He says this is bullshit, we should have stayed working solo if we were going to get demoted when we got placed on a team, this is a load of shit and the only reason he has been doing this so far is because he is loyal to the village and always will be, I still think he is a fool these weeks have been torture I haven't even seen the world outside of this village in nearly a month..."

Hiruzen had to agree he had pretty much demoted Naruto, he started looking through his files while Iruka started going on a rampage about mission rankings and respect for the rules. Naruto and Akane turned on him like a dog would a cat eyes promising pain. "You are a fool Iruka, look at our mission record before giving us that lecture, see what this village thinks of these rules you preach about." She stomped her foot on the ground and intensified her glare on the chunin while Naruto shifted back and leaned against the wall, he saw that it wouldn't be long before Akane and Iruka were trying to kill each other, he let out a deep sigh of relief when the Hokage pulled out a new mission and waved it in front of the group.

"Before you two try to kill each other in my mission office Team 7 is being assigned a C-rank, you are to escort a bridge builder back to the Land of Waves, Iruka if you could please fetch Tazuna-san." The chunin in question gave a small bow before walking out of the room, Akane turned and looked at Naruto to see him shaking his head towards her, it was clear he was not impressed at how far she had taken it. They did not have to wait long for Iruka to return and were in fact surprised when the client came in and started fussing over Naruto or as he called him 'Crimson'.

"I get to be lead back to my village by Crimson? _The _Crimson? " When he received a nod from the Hokage he pumped his fist into the air while Naruto looked disgusted at the man, he had become quite well known near wave but he was not expecting anything like this.

"Ok well Tazuna-san if you are done we shall meet up at the north gate in Half an hour ok?" The bridge builder gave a strong salute and filed out of the room, Iruka looked to the Hokage with a confused face.

"He was drunk earlier right?" Hiruzen looked between Iruka and Team 7, he gave a small shrug and filled up his pipe with tobacco.

"The mission has been assigned, now get to it." The hooded genin pushed off the wall and vanished in a swirl of flames that was followed by Akane, Kakashi vanishing in one of leaves while Sasuke and Sakura sighed at being left behind again, deciding it would be best to pack for the mission.

The half and hour passed quickly as Sakura walked down the path to the gate, once she made her way to the group Kakashi stopped her in her tracks and asked to see what she had in her back, he was sadly disturbed when her pack contained changes of clothes and beauty products. "You go back home and pack for a mission not a vacation. This is disgusting." Kakashi frowned and watched as Sakura moved back to her home, he quickly apologised to Tazuna for his students lack of competence.

"It is to be expected when you give a child the rights of an adult, in my opinion Sasuke and Sakura are not ready to be genin, they are still too hung up on the past to keep their minds where they need to be." Akane pointed out matter of factly from where she leaned against a tree, Naruto laying in the tree above her, still unseen by the rest of the group sans Kakashi.

Sasuke ground his teeth as he snapped his head around and turned on the redhead. "What gives you the right to talk down to me? A Elite of this village?" He finished with a scof thinking about her insolence, sadly his talk was cut off as he found himself bound to the ground, Akane not moving a muscle, looking around he saw Kunai embedded in the earth with wire holding him down. Again he gritted his teeth looking for who would dare strike a hand against him.

As if answering the Uchiha's question Naruto dropped out of the tree floating gracefully to the ground, his foot not making a sound as it connected and slowly lowered the rest of his body, in his hand he held the end of the wire that was wrapped around the 'Elite'. "I see the title of Dancer is not for nothing, you hold grace even as you fall." Tazuna stated his observation still in a fangirl like state at being close to Crimson.

"He says a Kenjutsu user should be able to make every move beautiful to hide the ugly truth behind its actions, he thanks you for your praise though. He finds the Uchiha's arrogance an issue though, the clan lost its pride out of a heinous act, one that has been covered in great lengths, but we all know about that ne Kakashi-sensei?" Mentioned jounin looked between Akane and Naruto trying to figure out what they were talking about, seeing the question in his one visible eye Akane knew that it was covered up more than she thought, Naruto gave a small scoff and held his hand out. "But thats not fair... you knew they wouldn't know. How did you know?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders collecting the money from her and jumping back up into the tree, pulling a book from his pocket and scribbling inside, he stayed like this until the pink haired genin came back, Kakashi quickly looking through her pack and while their was still hair care products there was sadly more than enough equipment for a C-rank.

* * *

They had been traveling now for a few hours sadly in Naruto's opinion at a civilian pace, he remembered carrying Haku on his back from the borders it took less than a day, inwardly he groaned as his team started asking about wave, he spent most of his shinobi career working in that area so he knew everything he needed to for a C-rank, it was a sunny day and it hadn't rained for quite some time so he was suspicious of the puddle that lay on the ground, he saw that Kakashi noticed it as well and decided not to worry about it as the jounin was fine with ignoring it, Naruto knew a few of the missing nin in these area's so he decided it would be best if he 'left'. Tazuna looked around and saw that the boy and Akane were missing, when he was about to open his mouth to question the fact he saw two shinobi form out of a puddle and charge the jounin reaching him before the bridge builder could utter a word of warning.

"One down, two to go brother." Sadly Naruto knew these two men, they would not back off even if he asked them two, the demon brothers Gozu and Meizu, missing nin from Kirigakure, Chunin rank. The chain that hung between their gauntlet was coated in poison, for him that didn't matter _too_ much but for the other genin, it could be an issue, once he found their target though he would step in, seeing that they were more concerned about the old man than the last Uchiha he figured they were hired to stop the bridge at any costs.

As they were about to Strike Tazuna Gozu was lifted into the air while Meizu stopped in his tracks and coughed up blood, Naruto shimmered into place moments later showing he was the cause of these actions, his blade still running through Meizu's chest. Seeing that his brother was dead Gozu started to panic in Naruto's grasp, said orange haired genin kicked the now lifeless nin off of his blade before making a sealless clone to store the body in a scroll, he tossed Gozu to the side like a rag doll his legs breaking against the tree in a sickening crack.

As the nin squirmed on the ground Naruto walked over to him picking him up by the scruff of his cloak, bringing him to eye level and flashing his red eyes signaling the use of genjutsu. A few moments passed before the captured nin told everything he knew about his mission, which sadly was not much, when the talking stopped Naruto tilted his head to the side and tossed the body in the air, quickly stabbing his Katana into the ground and using it for leverage as he twisted his body to neigh impossible lengths, a loud crack was heard before something fell to the ground, Naruto now stood with his back towards a headless enemy wind chakra fading away from his legs.

Sasuke and Sakura paling on the spot as their stomach's started to churn from the brutality of their teammate, Akane bounded up to Kakashi like nothing had even happened stopping in front of him with her hands behind her back. "Did you hear that Sensei, seems out client isn't as trustworthy as we thought." Naruto strode up beside her moments later after sealing Gozu into a scroll and ridding the blood from his blade. "Even though principle says we should head back, I think we have more than enough firepower to handle this if things get out of hand."

Kakashi seemed to maul the thought over in his head for a few moments before giving a slight nod. "I do to, well it looks like you guys will be getting at least a B-rank pay for this one, dealing with missing chunin made sure of that, now lets get this mission done." Tazuna was surprised he didn't have to try and guilt trip them into protecting him once they found out, he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth though and quickly led them to where he had someone waiting to take them into the land of waves. It was a long trip and they had to camp a few miles away from the meeting point as it was getting late.

Naruto volunteered to guard the camp seeing as he was used to it on his solo missions, Kakashi said this was ok but to let someone else take over if he was getting tired, once they thought Naruto was out of range his other two genin rounded on the silver-haired jounin. "Kakashi-sensei, do you know who Crimson is?" The jounin gave a nod but did not branch further into the matter leaving his genin hanging, after some time of waiting for a reply Sakura continued. "Are you going to tell us?"

The silver-haired jounin gave a sigh as he tucked his favourite book away. "It is not my place to say, but know this you have met him before." Kakashi stared at them both for a few minutes and gave a smaller sigh. "Shouldn't you two be like sleeping or something?" Sasuke gave the classic Uchiha response 'Hn' and shifted away into his tent leaving Sakura to look at the campfire a little longer. "Red is right, you need to start acting more mature now Sakura, you can not let your emotions take control in the middle of a mission... me and Crimson both saw how you froze back there, he won't say anything because he can't and Red won't because Crimson scolded her over it, that leave just me, from here on out I will not be babyying you guys as genin you will be learning the hard but right way how to be shinobi for the leaf, that will mean killing when it is called for like Crimson did today."

Sakura gulped as a flash of earlier played through her mind, the ease in which he took someones life showed that it was not his first time, not by a long shot. Crimson's kick it was beautiful, it almost hid the ugly things that it caused. She gave Kakashi a small nod and headed into her tent, once the flap was closed Akane come down and sat next to Kakashi. "So I take it you both heard that?"

_"Yes." _She could practically taste the venom in his thoughts.

"Yeah, he isn't too happy about that hint you dropped them... it's not likely that they remember him, but he does them." Kakashi shifted a little under the redhead's gaze.

"I know you Crimson's name is pretty big around here, so what is wave like at the moment?" Noemi flinches as the images of wave flash through her mind, her head slowly lowers itself to rest at shoulder level.

"It's worse than district 9 in Konoha, the kids have it the worst, never knowing when their next meal will come, Gato has polluted the water so fish are now scarce around wave getting rid of one of their biggest sources of food, it is a mess." A frown ran deep across her face, she looked up as she suddenly felt warmer seeing that Naruto had draped his coat over her form, whether it was a sign of care or just because he had no more use for it she would not know.

The two talked for a while longer before going to sleep, Kakashi was surprised when he was awoken in the morning to breakfast already waiting for them, part of him had hoped that Naruto would ask him to take over, he saw the boys clones running around the camp getting things ready and saw a few walk into his tent before a large cloud of smoke erupted and out walked a tense Crimson his head snapping around, breakfast did not last long and the group was on their way again, a small patch of white entered his vision and before he let it get away a kunai ran through its body sticking it to the tree, the pinkette of the group ran to check what it was seeing a now dead snow-white rabbit, Crimson and Akane looked over to Kakashi who gave a small nod and the group moved forward a few steps before Kakashi grabbed the genin and pushed them to the flow, Naruto quickly kicked Akane and Tazuna to the ground and pivoted on his feet raising his leg and flipping the incoming blade that he knew all to well, his left arm shooting out and grabbing its handle slamming it into the ground.

He heard the sound of feet hitting a tree and looked up to see his rival/friend looking down at him. "No wonder the Demon Brothers failed if you are here Crimmy." Mentioned genin was standing on top of the hilt of the executioner edge, taking in his surroundings. "Ahh you still aren't talking so I guess red is still your translator?"

Said person flicked some dust out of her hair and stood to her feet. "Funny I am actually using that as my name now... how is Guren, I know she is around here somewhere not to mention Haki." Zabuza took notice of the silver-haired man on the ground and grimaced, he had hoped that 'Crimmy' was the commanding officer.

"Both are doing their thing, hey Crimmy I didn't know those tree huggers finally put you on a team, so whaddya' say another round of kenjutsu?" Naruto gave a sinister grin under his hood as he jumped from Zabuza's blade and threw it to the man watching it dig into the tree Zabuza ripped his blade and dashed away from the clearing, Naruto let out a sigh and begun to follow him away from the group, Kakashi started to panic he knew Naruto was good but going against a jounin by himself was ridiculous. He got up to chase after them but found his path cut off by a wall of crystals.

"Zabuza-kun and Crimson-san are to be left alone, I will not let you interfere with their game." Two women dropped down both in kimono's one with blue hair the other with white.

"What Guren-chan said." Haki looked over and saw Akane glaring her down. "Ahh now that Crimson is gone you are off your lead and want to finish this eh?" A small nod came from the redhead who dashed across carrying Haki out of the clearing.

Guren frowned looking at the three shinobi left, without her bloodline she was chunin rank meaning that these genin would be rather easy seeing as they can't have been more than a few months into the job. The jounin though was Kakashi of the Sharingan, this would put her skills to the test, hopefully she could last until the others were finished.

* * *

**Year 4 **

Kyuubi sat in the middle of a clearing in a meditative position listening out for her target, she flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Looks like I caught you." She opened her eyes and slowly turned around to see the small smile on Naruto's face it warmed her chest to see him happy.

"That you did, how did you do it?" Naruto went on to explain the small genjutsu he used on her nose and sense of touch to throw off the wind patterns making her think he was standing somewhere else, while he used a small wind chakra exercise to make his feet hover millimeters from the ground meaning he made no noise as he moved, she gave a small gasp at the thought that went into his new exercise and a small smile at how far he was coming. "Akane." The orange haired boy tilted his head to the side in confusion. "My name is Akane, Naruto."

He slowly brought his arms around her in dragged her into a hug to keep her appearances up she fought against it, not hard but she still fought. "I am a step closer." Was all he said as he rested his head on top of her own. He stayed there for a few moments before remembering that they were proclaimed enemies and broke apart missing the slight tremble of her bottom lip. He nervously brought his hand up to the back of his head and gave a small scratch. "Uh I will go get us something to eat, yeah." And with that he was off vanishing in a small shimmer of light, knowing she would be hard pressed to track him like that she went back to their house in the tree, marveling at what they had accomplished in the past few years, she had snuck out and seen some of the other genin training and already knew Naruto to be above them, this villagers standards were ridiculously low as far as she was concerned.

She got a little carried away with her thoughts as they became deeper and darker that she didn't notice how much time had passed until a plate was placed in front of her showing a few kinds of wild berries and what she assumed was boar meat. She muttered out a small thanks and quickly ate her meal as Naruto finished his and left to his room, he was not one for staying up to late and went to go read in his bed before falling asleep, like every night since that event she had come in complaining about how cold her room was and he let her jump into bed with him blowing out the candle on her way down, only this time she snuggled up to him while he was still awake. She waited and hour until she was positive he had drifted off and leaned back taking a good look at his features, his whisker marks she loved every bit of them, his mouth was slightly open letting her see his fox like teeth and getting some rather nasty thoughts at what those could do to her perfect skin, her gaze drifted to his orange hair, she found the colour better on him than blonde, the way his bangs fell next to his face, the way his hair looked when he finally lets it down after a long day, it all worked for him.

He looked good when it was tied up but when it was down it really went with his toned body, not to mention now that he was eating proper his growth was out of this world when they stood next to each other she found herself at his chest, she found it rather cute their size difference anyway, she shifted a little as she looked around and felt his claws dig into her skin, letting her know she was disturbing his sleep, the thought of those claws tearing through her clothes made her feel a little hot under the skin knowing that he had an animal side that he was just waiting to let out, he smelled of earth, flowers and there was a faint smell of blood on him, it was one he could not shake but she found the combination enticing and comforting one she could enjoy.

His tail tightened around her and she instantly knew he was having another nightmare, they were becoming more and more common and often ended in him not sleeping, it was the reason she now learnt to cherish these moments that she could spend examining him without having to worry if he would catch her in the act, his tail was bushy but not absurdly it still held its fox like shape and matched the colour of his hair causing her to smile thinking about the hair she had come to enjoy so much, his tail was the second thing she liked most about him, she looked up to, in her opinion, his best feature, his mouth, the way he smiled, the way he frowned and pouted, each made her feel things she hadn't felt since she was younger and all over her siblings were still together, it was strange that this boy she had known for only a few years could have such an effect on him, at first she found it insulting but as the time passed she slowly found herself starting to enjoy spending time with him.

Her body slowly moved up as her eyes closed, she placed a soft kiss against his lips that closed at the action, his red eyes snapped open at the action when he saw the strands of red hair he left it knowing she had been acting weird but would not want to talk about it, maybe this was one of those bijuu things she always brushed things off as, he let his eyes close he would pretend like it never happened if that is what she wanted, he missed the smile that graced her features as she backed away from the kiss, not knowing she had been caught in the act, "I don't want to be your enemy..." She mumbled out to herself Naruto acted like he was still asleep and stirred at her voice.

"Akane.." He groaned out and his grip tightened around her, sleep claiming him moments later, she snuggled her head back into his chest taking in his scent it hurt her to think his nightmares were about her, he didn't talk about them so she never really knew what happened in them, was he worried about something happening to her or was she the thing that him pain?

* * *

**PA: It is done, also in news that you guys may be interested in the next update will have a small amount of NaruxSaku in it as it will start to set things going, also how will the whole wave event turn out? These things and more next time on KCD**


	6. I Hate People Like You

**PA: Got the latest chapter done with the next part of the wave section, don't fear it has maybe 1-2 chapters left in it then maybe a filler of sorts before chunin exams.**

**naruto: Uh I kind of just wrote him how I think someone could act if they were treated that way, I kinda wanted him to close off I know he has some anger issues, but that is mostly because of Akane.**

**desolatingninja: Thank you for your kind words and I hope this came out soon enough for you:)**

**TigrezzTail: I know in cannon they whined about the D-ranks, now Naruto actually has a reason to hate them as he knows how bad they are compared to the rest of the things he could be doing instead.**

**Disclaimer: Plagued Ambition does not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto stabbed his sword into the ground and flipped over it tucking his body in so his feet would just meet the flat side of Zabuza's blade, he used the tree walking technique he was taught by Akane early in his life to stick his feet to the blade and take it with him in his flip smashing it into the ground away from its user. He looked up at the bandaged nin and saw his hands running through the seals for a suiton (water) jutsu. "Suiton: Tunneling Dragon." As the jutsu would suggest a large water dragon spun towards Naruto carving the earth up between him and Zabuza.

He let out a small tsk of annoyance and shot his left arm forward, mumbling something under his breath, a small vortex krept open taking the brunt of the attack sadly in Naruto's case he could not keep it open for long and still got hit by the tail end of the jutsu, knocking his hood off and showing the scar that still ran across his right eye, his face shifted into a snarl and he bared his teeth.

His left arm started to shake violently as a puddle of water formed under it, Naruto pushed of the ground with grace and landed on a tree sticking to it's length looking across at his sparring partner, his eyes narrowing as the man pulled his blade from the ground, Naruto gave his a quick flick and sent a pulse from his arm to his eye's making them flash red entering the first stage of his genjutsu, Zabuza let out a low growl as Naruto shimmered away, he had not found a way to counter this yet and it was the most annoying of the orange-haired kids moves.

He swung his head cleaving blade around to block his back hearing the sound of metal striking his own brought a small smile to his face, he was strong but predictable, a flash of orange in front of him caused him to widen his eyes only just shifting his head to the side in time to dodge the strike that went right through his blade. _'Bunshin?' _His eyes darted around the pressure on the back of his blade was gone so where was the real Naruto? The ground started to shift around his feet he felt it getting righter holding him to the ground.

Naruto's appeared all around him their blade out and ready to run him through. As they moved to strike Zabuza subbed himself out with one of the clones only to see it burst in smoke when it was run through. _'Bunshin... with Kage bunshin mixed in the lot. Guess I can't get cocky and start letting them hit me.' _He swung his sword wide and heard the sound of a clone dispelling, he let out a grumble of displeasure this was coming to much effort. "Ninpo: Kirigakure no jutsu. (Ninja art: Hidden Mist.)" Naruto looked around as the heavy mist came into play, he dispelled his genjutsu seeing as Zabuza was no doing the job for him, no need to drain his own reserves. Naruto ran his right hand through seals and stopped on the tiger with a small smirk on his face. _"Raiton: Static Burst." _He spoke softly through the mental link, his body slowly became covered in lightning before it started to arch our into the mist, because of the high water concentration in the mist its effects were instantaneous as it turned into a dangerous light show where you had to keep moving or you would be fried. He put his blade away in left the mist waiting to see how long it would take for Zabuza to become tired.

The mist faded a few moments later showing a burnt and panting Zabuza in the middle, glaring across at Naruto. "That was a pretty dirty trick Gaki." Naruto merely flicked his headband causing Zabuza to snort, "I guess you have a point, so you want to keep going or we call it quits for now?" Naruto drew his blade again and held a smirk on his face as the missing nin did the same, his bandages peeling away and showing his shark like teeth. The were equal in speed, Naruto won in agility but Zabuza won in strength, that is if he didn't use that damned smoke covered arm, he saw how it absorbed his jutsu earlier, that was definitely something new, it also seemed that it was not complete yet. He dashed forward and Naruto stood still leaning his body to the side as the blade bigger than himself came crashing down, he threw out a small jab with his left hand blowing the blade and owner away.

Zabuza could not keep his eye's on the boy as his body turned in the air, he lost track of him for just a moment but after that he could not find him again, he wondered where he was now until he felt a small prick on the side of his neck and a rough arm tight around his throat. He gave the arm a few gentle taps and he the grip relented allowing him to breath again. "Looks like this one goes to you Crimmy." The older nin said with a small chuckle Naruto picked him off of the ground roughly and through a scroll at him which he rushed to open, already knowing its contents. "Firebrand Sake... you always have the good stuff Crimmy." Naruto gave a small snort as he unsealed his own scroll and a guitar popped into his hands a small smile cracking across his face as Zabuza placed a bottle down next to Konoha's Prince.

* * *

Haki and Akane had made quite some room from the others their claws locked in front of one anothers face. "Naruto... he has left Zabuza-kun a lot to think about since our last visit." The redhead widened her eyes at the snow maidens words, she breathed out a small stream of fire singing the maidens hair. Haki did not take kindly to Akane's attempt of a haircut as such the air around them became very cold and ice started to form into needle thin streaks.

"Naruto-kun... he has enough on his plate at the moment he doesn't need you butting into his life because he said some words your partner is having trouble coming to terms with." Haki held a small smirk on her face as she looked at the redhead.

"Naruto-kun eh? Since when did you two become so close?" Akane started to stumble over her words unable to put together a sentence Haki dove down and sliced off a few strands of her red locks watching as they fell to the ground. She moved up behind Akane who still seemed to be in her own little world, a thin dagger of ice resting against her jugular. "I never said I would but into his life, the things he said to Zabuza-kun though, you should keep an eye on him Akane, I know you care about him even if he can not see it. He is walking a dark road that he soon won't be able to come back from." She felt the redhead stiffen in her arms and deemed this fight to be over, she had not intended to fight her anyway she just needed to tell her that.

Petals of snow slowly fell and Haki dispersed among them floating away as the area started to thaw like she was never there.

* * *

"Zabuza-kun has asked that he is not disturbed, I will not let you pass." Guren declared raising a wall of crystal in the area where Sakura and Sasuke tried to run under the orders of Kakashi. Mentioned jounin let a ball of fire out of his mouth tearing up the landscape and anything that got in its way until it ran into the crystal wall where it bounced rolled up it and went into the sky before burning up. "I do not wish to hurt you as I have not been asked to but if you will not sit and wait until Zabuza-kun is done... then I will have put you down." Her tone was cold and her eyes were narrowed looking at Kakashi.

"Crimson is under my care I am responsible for what happens to him?" Guren rose a brow at his statement before letting out a small laugh raising her Kimono to block her mouth, a small tint of red adorning her cheeks, she had never seen his face but she had heard nothing but good things about Crimson, if he was half as good looking as Zabuza described him, well she wouldn't mind being locked in a room with the both.

"I think he is safer with Zabuza-kun, we know how your village treats him." Guren was told about how rough 'Crimmy' had it in his early years only to hear that people still try to poison him daily, if it weren't for his sense of smell than Zabuza could have been down a 'playmate'.

Guren stiffened as lightning chakra formed around kakashi's hand, she had heard of the technique, it was a kill more as such she started forming wall after wall of crystal to hold him back, she heard his battle cry and pumped as much chakra as she could through the structures but it made no difference as he kept on coming, she let out a sigh, it was time to swap to a different approach, The air around her became dense and heavy as spears started to form near her position, she heard the small crackle of lightning knowing he was about to break through, she hurled the spears towards him, there was a sudden slap of flesh hitting cloth and steel hitting crystal, looking up she saw Crimson with his hood down holding a dish of Sake in one hand while his foot had slapped Kakashi's still coursing wrist towards the ground while Zabuza had spun on the spot his dish still in hand while his sword had knocked the crystal off course.

"Me and Crimmy have decided, there shall be no more fighting, re-group we shall plan further later on." Zabuza gave a small nod to himself agreeing with what he just said. Naruto gave a small nod to Kakashi, signaling that it was indeed what they had agreed on. His eyes narrowed when he heard the roaring of the Uchiha, how he wished he could kill him, his blood would make everything much better. He needed to rid himself of this anger, it was not natural, how finished his Sake dish and let out a small sigh of relief and tossed it to the ground watching as it turned back into water. "Guren get Haki we are leaving, let me know how it goes Crimmy, and I will be expecting your help like your promised." Naruto gave the missing nin a stiff nod making his orange hair dance now that it was not confined by his hood.

Naruto looked to where Akane was coming from and gave the redhead a sad smile, his sake bottle had already been sealed away before he jumped in between the two attacks, he turned to the genin on the team and had to try his best not to scowl at the Uchiha, he looked to the pinkette and gave her a small smirk before looking back at Kakashi and shrugging his shoulders. "I guess I will have to get you to explain this all later on then Naruto?" Said boy frowned a little before giving a small nod while the genin behind him gasped, Sakura had been thinking along the lines already but she just needed a little bit more to be sure, Kakashi's statement was that little bit more.

"N-naruto?" The boy in question gave a slow nod of his head. "Y-you were Crimson...the whole time?" He gave a simple shrug as his answer and Akane dropped down next to him looking at his uncovered form, and the scar that ran over his currently closed eye.

"We should keep going, I think we could all do with some rest." Kakashi's gaze lingered on Naruto a little while longer, _'Which team are you playing for Naruto? Are you still the same boy I used to know?' _He was at a loss and needed time to think, if they had to fight Zabuza and his group again Naruto and Akane would be the deciding factor.

* * *

The rest of the trip went without disturbance and the group found themselves moving through the poverty stricken country of wave, Naruto's uniform stood out even here and murmurs were being cast around the streets as Team 7 moved towards the place they would be staying, their orange haired mystery boy stopping every now and again to give someone food or money, Kakashi understood why and it made him feel that there was a chance the Naruto he knew was still in there, Sasuke looked at him with disgust for 'dirtying his hands on trash' and Sakura was confused about the whole trip so far. Naruto cast his partner a look as she had not said more than a few words since they had joined back up, it was not like her to be so quiet and it seemed to unnerve him. He looked back to the front and saw that the others had entered into the house of their client while Kakashi stood at the door waiting for him, Akane sent him a nervous glance but he motioned for her to head inside. "Naruto I think you have a lot of explaining to do." He let out a small sigh and brought his left hand into the air making careful strokes, small strands of smoke staying behind and forming the words he wouldn't speak.

_' That I do, where would you like me to start?' _Kakashi arched a brow slightly at how open Naruto seemed to be with him right now, he would not question it in fear that he may close up again.

"I would like to know how you and Zabuza are so close." His tone was soft and Naruto looked around before finding waving Kakashi to follow leading the jounin towards a more secure place, he did not want everybody and anybody to know about his life.

_'He has helped me out a few times when I was on some harder missions, I to leant him a hand when he needed it, he has become a comrade, a rival... a friend. He has helped to drag me away from my own darkness more than once and I helped him to find Guren.' _What did the boy mean by his own darkness? Kakashi inwardly mused he figured it would be something for him to think about later.

"Ok well what is this thing that Zabuza needs your help for?" Naruto let a small smile creep over his face and the words that he wrote next caused Kakashi to gasp. "I-I understand, is it really the wisest move though Naruto?" The orange haired boy gave a shrug before moving away towards the house.

_'There is no such thing as wrong Kakashi, everyone is right in their own minds, it is what makes our jobs so hard as we have to convince ourselves that what we are doing is right no matter how dirty the person we are working for may be.' _He gave the jounin a sad smile. _'Do you ever feel so small... so insignificant that no matter what you do nothing will change? The minority will always rule... their sense of righteous justice will be forced upon us and we will become their tools of war... it has been this way since the start if you look back over history, it kind of makes you wonder if putting our lives on the line everyday is actually worth it seeing as nothing will end up changing. I guess these are just things I tell myself though to help me feel better about what I must do, thanks for listening Kakashi.' _Naruto gave a small wave and entered the house leaving a stupefied Kakashi standing out on the grass as a gentle breeze flew past.

"Huh, you really are one of a kind Naruto, I believe you can break the chain in history..." Kakashi walked slowly towards the house and opened the door to find Sasuke trying to attack Naruto who seemed quite bored of it already. "GENIN, stand down." Kakashi roared Naruto's foot stopping right next to the Uchiha's head, he looked between the four of them and had to sigh, as much as he hated to admit it Naruto was probably the only one that would tell him what actually happened. He sent a questioning look to the boy who left a small note on the table.

_'I tripped into the Uchiha, when I didn't say sorry he thought I did it on purpose it was my fault.' _Kakashi looked up to see what Naruto thought about what he wrote but the boy was already gone, he put the note back onto the table and walked off to build a training program for the kids so they could hold their own a bit better, Sasuke and Sakura were dead weight in that fight and could have been taken out at anytime, it was a real eye opener that he had neglected them. Akane looked at the note then to Sakura who had copied her actions.

"Why did he lie?" They both questioned, and went up to see what the issue was with Naruto only to find the room where he was told to put his stuff moments before the fight happened was locked tight, a small seal was present in the middle of the door. "It is best if we leave him alone, he will come out when he is ready." Akane could feel the emotions running through him and wanted to tear that Uchiha to shreds, she took a deep breath in and calmed her thoughts, she didn't need to add to Naruto's issues at the moment he just needed his space and some time. She watched Sakura walk back down the stairs with a critical eye, why was this pink haired ninja wannabe so worried about Naruto? It didn't make sense to her, she didn't even know it was Naruto until yesterday when he showed up without his hood. There was a small tap on the wall just next to her head, turning to the source was the masked jounin looking down at her.

"Want to tell me why Naruto just covered for the Uchiha?" She wanted to tell Kakashi what happened she really did but that would be going against what Naruto wanted right? That would mean he might not keep her warm tonight. Why did he had to be so confusing.

"I do not want to do anything that may cause a rift between me and my partner Kakashi, sorry but I will not tell you." She spun on her foot and walked down back down the stairs feeling small twinges of pain in her chest as a result of what Naruto was putting himself through, she hated it when he sealed himself away, she couldn't force herself in not in this spirit body. She sat at the table and tried to keep a straight face as Kakashi told the others what they would be training on while they were here just mentally putting a tick next to them for what Naruto knew before he reached the academy. It was not long before Tazuna;s daughter came out with the dinner she had prepared for the group, she was attractive for a civilian, a nice figure, a gentle and caring face with long black hair, her tone was kind, all in all she was the kind of woman Akane would want to be if she was a civilian... no that would never happen, she could not deal with that kind of boredom, how did this girl keep herself from going insane with all the spare time she had? _"Naruto, diner is on the table down stairs." _She thought it would be best to at least let him know, while their kind host called out to her son, Inari, the child was on her nerves all ready, he was so depressed about everything but had no reason to be, Sasuke at least had a reason to be how he was, she still hated him for it but at least he _had _a reason.

She heard a door slowly open then close, when she didn't hear footsteps she knew it was Naruto his scent falling down the stairs just added to her confirmation. He was in his sweats and muscle top showing off his toned arms and the scars that covered them and his chest, he took his seat at the table without making a sound his eyes seemed to be glued shut as he crossed his legs to sit comfortably. A bowl was placed in front of him and he quietly started to eat his eyes remained closed and he tried to drown out the conversation that was taking place.

It was all for nothing though as the child started to get angry and slammed his hands against the table. "Why do you even bother, you are all going to die here! There is no hope it is pointless... you could never understand what it is like. " Naruto's eyes snapped open and flashed black for a moment, he slowly uncrossed his legs and moved over to the child picking him up by the back of his overalls and bringing him to his eye level.

"People like you... I hate the most... you think you have it so bad when in reality you have it damn easy, living here with a family that cares about you, able to provide food for you nightly, you never have to wonder what tomorrow will bring as your simple life is stable." He dropped the kid to the ground like everyones jaws when he spoke. He turned on his foot and headed to the door. "If I had a father or even a grandfather, I would not spit on his wishes like you just did." The door slammed shut behind him Akane was frozen in her spot to shocked to even process what had happened.

Kakashi recovered first and looked around the room at the people, he saw Inari almost ready to cry Sakura and Sasuke both shocked and the boys partner frozen in place, he himself was shocked at what happened, Naruto was normally quiet and would let people say whatever they wanted as long as they didn't curse, he saw no need for it, but this it must have hit him hard. The pinkette slowly turned to face Kakashi. "Should we go after him sensei to make sure he is alright?"

Kakashi mauled the thought over in his mind, did Naruto need their help? Would he be angry that they tried to check on him? "Leave him, I am sure he can handle himself, isn't that right Red?" He looked to where Akane was only to hear the front door close, he let out a small groan tonight was not going to be his night.

* * *

Akane ran through the forest chasing after his scent, it was all she had left of him as she didn't actually see where he went, she hoped this was actually him and not some clone, she was in mid jump when she started flying backwards, looking up she saw the masked nin she had grown used to. "I wouldn't do that Red he needs some time to himself." She was confused at how Zabuza already knew where he was, she had chased him from the place he left whereas Zabuza was already here like he left at the same time.

"H-he talked, after over 2 years he talked." She muttered out, Zabuza landed on a branch and sat her down.

"Now red this is serious, you are acting like a fangirl, don't you hate them? He talked and it is exciting I get it, but right now he needs his space he will come to you when he is ready... so don't push him ok?" Akane took a deep breath and steadied herself feeling what Naruto did through their connection, he was confused, hurt, angry and sad. Zabuza was right he would come to her when he was ready.

"You're right, but why are you here?" He gave a small shrug and pulled out a bottle of Sake.

"I need a drinking partner, I offered it to Crimmy but he told me some other time. Picture my face when he said that to me and not just right it down, I freaked but let him be leaving a few bottles with him, I think he pulled out his guitar when I was leaving though not to sure." Akane tilted her head at what he said before taking one of the dishes Zabuza made by compacting water to such a state that it was pretty much solid.

"He still has that thing? Wasn't he terrible at it?" Zabuza let out a roar of laughter as he finished what was in his dish.

"You must not of heard him play in quite some time, he had gotten good, they say that a person tells their story through the songs they play, I don't know if it is true but I can't see why it wouldn't be, why would you play something that means nothing to you after all?" His eyes holding questioning glances, he picked up Akane much to her protest and flashed down to a rock that was not to far away, it was just in range that they could hear Naruto strumming away, the rock was large enough for the fully grown nin to stretch out and lay down on. "I was sitting here before you came, there is just something about him, it makes me feel like I am not such a bad person, I want to help him ya know but I have no idea how." A lone tear fell down Zabuza's cheek, Akane looked to him in shock before looking over the rock and seeing just how many bottles were on the ground.

"You're drunk aren't you?" he gave her a stiff nod and just let out a sigh leaning back on her arms and looking up at the stars on this clear night. "He makes me feel warm, he helps me to have fun even if it means that he is bored at times, he even lets me play around with his hair and Haku, I don't know why but he makes me feel special, What do you think Zabuza?" The masked nin polished off what was in his dish before he pointed across from them at the small tuft of pink that came into his vision.

"I think you need to stop pinky, because I feel sleepy." He put his bottle down and threw his dish smashing it against a tree before rolling over and curling up a little on the rock, his breathing became even and Akane assumed he had actually fallen asleep. With a small groan she shunpoed over to Sakura scaring the girl out of her skin, she quickly slammed her hand over Sakura's mouth so she wouldn't let out a scream that would let Naruto know they were so close.

"What are _you _doing here." She hissed in a low tone slowly taking her hand away from the pinkett's mouth, her eyes were narrow and accusing.

"I don't know ok, I wanted to make sure he was alright, why are you here?" Sakura shot back, Akane crossed her arms over her chest and let out a small snort.

"I am his partner, why wouldn't I be here? Plus I am making sure he doesn't hear you." It took her awhile to notice but it had gone very quiet, Naruto's music had stopped.

"Well you didn't do a very good job." Both girls slowly turned their head upward and saw the very person they had spoken about moments ago swinging his legs back and forward like nothing was troubling him, a bottle of sake in one hand with his dish in the other. "As you can see Sakura-san I am fine, thank you for your concern, Red if you could please escort her back to the house, women should not be out this late by themselves."

"Oh, ok then Naruto, I guess I will see you in the morning than?" Naruto gave a small nod to Sakura's question there was no point in worrying her, he would not take to long anyway or so he thought at least.

"You better not stay out to late Naruto, you know I can't sleep without you." She slowly blushed red realising just how bad that had sounded. "I-I mean.."

Naruto gave a small laugh. "I know what you mean Red, I will be back soon to help you sleep." He noticed the subtle change in Sakura's posture but thought nothing of it for at the moment it was not deemed important by him.

"Ok well I guess we will see you later than." He gave them a small nod and shooed them away, he needed to 'wake up' Zabuza. Once the girls were out of hearing distance he shimmered over to where the missing nin lay who was trying his best not to laugh as Naruto landed on the rock.

"For a jounin you suck at trying to be asleep." Zabuza gave a small snort as he sat up and made a new dish for himself.

"For a genin you suck... full stop." The two looked at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing both knowing the statement to be far from the truth. "So what are you going to do?" And like that the laughter vanished and the mood turned somber.

"It is a pain, I don't think I can stop it my best bet is to learn how to control it, otherwise well I could go boom." He made a small explosion sound and waved his arms around slowly to get his message across. "I think we should scout out Gato's place tomorrow night, also you reckon I can get a cut for this?" Zabuza leaned over and looked at him for a moment.

"Eh normal rates?" Naruto gave a nod. "I don't see why not, my team takes 70% you get 30, been that way since day dot, helper always gets 30%." It was a simple deal they had with each other, plus it meant that they didn't exactly owe one another favours as they got paid for the work they did.

"Kakashi knows about your other plan... seems like he is not the biggest fan, I doubt he will hold me back from it though." Zabuza gave a gentle shrug, they still had time before any of that really mattered.

"What are you going to do about those girls?" Naruto rose his brow's at the question.

"What about them?" Zabuza gave him a laugh before noticing he was serious.

"Gaki, that Pink-haired one Sakura I think her name was, it looks like she may have a little thing for you, I am sure Kakashi was worried about you as was Tazuna's daughter but neither of them came running out here in the middle of the night did they?" Naruto gave a small nod and topped up his empty dish taking a small sip and feeling the warm liquid slide down his throat. "And please for the love of all that is good in this world tell me that you have noticed Akane acting strange around you."

Naruto lowered his head a little and just looked at the sake in his dish as he swirled it around and around creating a small current. "It was years ago, I don't know if she feels the same way now but she kissed me on the lips and said she didn't want to be enemies any more... I have kind of just let it pass not entirely in the know of what to do in situations like that, plus we all know the rules about falling in love with spirits." Zabuza gave a small snort.

"Yeah because Akane is really a spirit... you got the bonuses that you would get from a spirit but can you unsummon her?" Naruto gave a shake of his head. "Do you get the drain from her being active to long." Naruto gave Zabuza an *are you kidding me face.* "Yeah that was a stupid question, your reserves are huge. Well you could always just do the test to see if she is actually a spirit." Naruto tilted his head to the side in confusion about what his friend had just said.

"What test?"

"You don't know about the test?" Naruto gave him a quick shake of his head and poured some more sake into his mouth. "Wow, well eh , you know hmm Spirits can'thavesex." The last part came out very quickly but Naruto understood every word and his sake became part of a spit take.

"So you want me to just go up to her and go Akane fuck me I want to see if you are a spirit or not? Is that what you are saying?" His brows were high and his eyes were full of question.

"Well not in those exact words, you have to be gentle about this kind of thing ya know?" Zabuza raised his dish to his mouth and Naruto gave a small smirk.

"So you and Guren done it yet?" And Zabuza mirrored Naruto's actions from earlier as his sake came from his mouth and nose burning on its way out. The swordsman coughed and spluttered choking on the sake that didn't come all the way out, Naruto put his head down on the rock enjoying this moment while he could. Watching his hair dance across his face in the breeze as the few small clouds slowly moved across the sky on this relatively clear night.

"What the hell was that for gaki?" Naruto only gave him a shrug as his answer as he discarded the dish now taking swigs straight from the bottle.

"Eh thats what you get, don't be talking about my love life if you can't handle the same Zabby-chan." Naruto taunted waving his index finger from side to side.

"Red was worried about you, like really worried, you should stop leaving her in the dark. She had no idea what you are going through and only wants to help." Naruto sat up and looked in between his legs like it was the most interesting thing on earth.

"I don't want her to be worried, If I tell her she will not get a moment of peace until it is done, we both know that Zabuza. I don't want that for her, I only say those things to her because she will not admit to what happened all those years ago, if she came out and said she didn't want to try to kill me anymore, I wouldn't get so cold at her from time to time, I need her to know what she actually wants before she starts to drag me through with it, otherwise I will just end up looking like a fool I guess." Zabuza looked over at Naruto his face trying to be as straight as possible.

"You know that almost none of that made sense right?" The orange haired kid let out a small sigh.

"I just don't want to jump into something I will regret and I don't want her to do the same, plus I don't even know if she is a spirit or not so this entire conversation right now could be pointless." Zabuza gave a small shrug.

"So when are you gonna finish 'it'." Naruto tilted his head back up to look at the clouds.

"Chunin exams I guess, that is if we get nominated for them, if I get to the final round I will finish 'it' and show it to the world." Zabuza gave a small chuckle as Naruto swept his arm out on the word world.

"That is something I might have to see, but you really should look at heading back Naruto, it is getting late." The orange haired nin bounced off of the rock his bottle of sake in hand and gave a mocking bow to Zabuza.

"Get home safely Zabby-chan." With a friendly wave Naruto faded like he was never there to begin with.

"What am I going to do with you Gaki."

"Hopefully nothing you creepy pedo." Came Naruto's voice from right next to his ear causing Zabuza to shriek like a little girl. "Haha latter Zabuza... for real this time... pedo."

A smile made its way across the missing nin's face as Naruto faded out. "Damn gaki, it won't be long before you are a force to be reckoned with."

Naruto found his way back to the house easy enough, he didn't know how long he had spent talking to Zabuza but he found Akane asleep outside in a blanket on the front steps. He crouched down and looked at her face as her nose twitched for a few seconds before her body slowly relaxed. He summoned a clone to hold his sake and picked up Akane bridal style making sure to keep the blanket wrapped around her, the clone strode out in front and opened the door for him as they made their way up the stairs after giving a brief nod to Kakashi who gave him a nod back without ever looking up from his orange book.

Her warmth breath was dancing over his chest as her hands curled tight holding his top. His feet glided across the ground making his way to their room as Akane had been adamant that they not sleep with the other genin, she really did cause a lot of trouble for him but looking at her now as she snuggled into his chest, he kind of enjoyed it. He held back his laughter as he put her in the bed and she murmured about him running off to drink with Zabuza again. It was true that he did that a lot but it helped him think, it also helped that Zabuza was a good guy with a tone of experience under his belt, sure he may be a little bloodthirsty at times and maybe even a little psychotic but Naruto couldn't think of a better friend for himself.

The soft patter a feet hitting the floorboards outside the room caused him to sigh, as he moved to the door ignoring Akane's dream riddled words. He opened the door with closed eyes and the scent gave away who it was. "Sakura-san, you should be in bed?" His eyes opened slowly changing back to their normal red before she could pick up any difference. She fumbled around with the hem of her shirt and slowly brought her eyes to meet his own.

"I-I just wanted to make sure you made it back alright. What are you going to do when Kakashi is giving us the boot camp of sorts?" Naruto rose a brow at her question, was she actually interested in his plan? Or was this some trick from the council again?

"I believe I will work on my prefered style, maybe seek some help from Zabuza and his group, I am sorry that I have to cut this short but I have some things I need to do in the morning. It was nice talking to you Sakura-san, have a good night." She gave a nervous smile and nod as he slowly closed the door and walked back to bed.

"Y-yeah you too Naruto." She stood in place thinking about all that had happened, she had given up on seeing him again, but after two long years he is back but much more distant than he seemed all that time ago, sure he was secretive way back then but he wasn't as closed off she had trained with him and doing missions for months and found out his real name earlier today. "What happened to you?" She questioned walking back to her room, she would really need to talk to her mother when she got home.

Naruto slowly crawled into bed and felt the small arms of Akane wrap around his body and pull her closer to him as she cuddled up into his warmth. "My Ruto." She mumbled out with a cute pout on her face, it was strange but he couldn't picture what his life would have been like without her, were they really as different as she tried to make them out to be?

* * *

Sakura was running up the side of the tree learning an exercise that some on her team had already mastered before entering the academy, a loud crash from the lake nearby caught her attention so she quickened her pace and saw the group that had returned half an hour ago going what she assumed to be flat-out against one another. "Senses collide and mask my movement... Shatter apart." Naruto's body slowly vanished into the air causing Guren and Zabuza to become rather defensive.

**"Kill... Destroy..." **Naruto had to shake the voice out of his head, it was bothering him more and more often now that it was actually starting to affect him in fights. He covered his feet in wind chakra so he could glide across the water with little to no resistance taking his speed to new heights.

"I want you to stop holding back Naruto, show us what you are made of." Guren vanished from Zabuza's sight and appeared a moment later cut up and bruised. "Teme." The missing nin seethed.

"The dawn brings a new day..." A flash of orange appeared on the edge of Zabuza's vision and the man put all his weight behind the swing, lose his balance as Naruto's blade pressed against his back. "That hides its second strike." He waved a hand over to Guren. "Shatter apart." And his genjutsu faded showing she was just knocked out. "And people always underestimate how handy genjutsu can be." The orange haired boy let out a small gasp of pain and fell to his knees coughing harshly getting the attention of those on the lake, Zabuza looked at him with worry etched on his face only for Naruto to slowly calm his body and take a few deep breaths to bring his breathing back to normal. "Just a bit of backlash, it still takes a lot holding up more than one of my genjutsu at a time." His left arm felt like it was on fire but they didn't need to know that, he picked himself up and noticed just how heavy he felt without that wind chakra around him all the time.

"Moving like a normal person sucks." Naruto mumbled clenching his fists and slowly taking a step forward noticing the burn throughout his body. "I feel like shit, am so happy we scouted out the bastard first, I think I would just loose my cool if I were to do it now." Zabuza looked at Naruto as the muscles in his left arm twitched violently and loud cracks were heard. Naruto gave him a small smile and shifted his weight to his right leg. "Like I said I feel like shit, my arm needs to reform and its going to hurt like hell." Zabuza nodded dumbly still feeling the massive fluctuations in Naruto's chakra reserves, now he was by no means a sensor, but even a decent genin could feel the huge differences that Naruto was giving, it did not exactly help that the water moved with the fluctuations spraying those with droplets that were on the lake. Zabuza was quite impressed he was able to stay afloat let alone move as Naruto walked to the edge of the lake and falling on the grass.

"For someone that has not talked in a few years you are talking like you never stopped." Zabuza stated landing next to him on the embankment letting the sun dry him off. Naruto gave a small shrug and raised his right arm behind his head stretching out and closing his eyes, his left arm still twitching violently.

"Just because I didn't talk out loud never means I stopped, I still constantly talked through the link with Akane and through her, you should know that best of all." His tone was one that made his statement seem completely offhand like it didn't even matter. "If you keep holding back in our spars you might accidentally hold back against an enemy, that could prove to be a fatal mistake Zabby." He picked up a few strands of grass with his still twitching left arm and let them fall away in the gentle breeze, watching as they turned to ash from his uncontrolled touch. "The ashes of new life shall be a cloud that chokes the current one." His face was grim and his eyes turned jet black for a moment before shifting back to their normal crimson red as his eyelids closed.

"So what are you?" Naruto gave a shrug to Zabuza's question, not really having an answer for it himself.

"Who knows?" He mumbled letting his red eyes see the sun before it went behind a cloud, he stifled a yawn and sat up tired of resting. He cracked his body back into place and sent a small pulse out from his left hand turning the grass to ash that blew away in the wind, he looked over to Zabuza with a small smile. "But I will help to show the worlds true beauty." He jumped onto his feet and swept his smoky hand out and across his body. "I know that I will be the ash that cleanses the world." A vicious smirk spread across his face as he closed his eyes and the ashe flew past him and out to the water scattering itself in the wind. "I will start with freeing this land from Gatto." Ash swirled around his feet before it dived forwards into the water turning it grey and moving towards where Akane was sparing against Haki, Guren had moved to watch their fight so as to give Naruto and Zabuza their 'guy time' as Zabuza had called it.

the grey deepened around Akane's feet and Naruto smirked as the water jumped up and drenched her, causing her to shriek in shock at the sudden cold, looking over she saw Naruto's arm pointed out towards her and she saw red, her feet marching across the distance and grabbing him by his collar hoisting him into the air. "You did this didn't you?" Naruto gave a small shrug followed by a taunting smirk.

"Who knows? Shatter." His body turned to smoke that quickly formed behind her, she turned to face him and let out a small growl.

"So you are an Ash Kitsune after all?" Naruto rose a brow in confusion as did Zabuza, both were interested in what she had to say now. "Did you really think all Kitsune were the same?" Naruto felt like nodded but refrained himself, it was clear that Zabuza did not have his level of restraint, it was something that Akane found to be a pain. "If you haven't noticed I am a fire kitsune if I need to explain what I do you two need to go back to school, I had a feeling that Naruto was an ash, but this just confirmed it, they are sneaky ones that have incredible strength to finish a fight quickly, if it turns out to go on longer than that then they will be in trouble, they normally have a mark on their left forearm." She turned slowly to Naruto. "Is that why you hid it from me?" He gave her a quick shake and fully unsealed his arm knocking them both away. Akane quickly recovered and gasped at the state of his arm. "W-what did you do Naruto?" He put the restraining seals back in place and the smoke returned to cover it.

"It started to mutate after that S-rank, it gives me trouble every now and again, but I really didn't think to much of it, it has boosted everything I d*slap*" He turned his head back to a teary eyed Akane who was clutching her chest.

"Do you even know what you have done you idiot? There is not meant to be two, one is bad enough. Why did you hide this from me Naruto? After all we have been through you would think you could fucking trust me." Naruto frowned he took a small step forward only for Akane to crash into his chest harsh sobs escaping her.

"Akane, I do trust you... I guess there are just some things I want to do by myself, I hope you can understand." She tilted her head up to glare at him for a few moments before leaning up and capturing his lips, it was awkward for both sides, all because Naruto was 'awake' this time, it was nothing more than a peck but her red tinted cheeks suggested that was enough for her at the moment, neither of them noticing the pair of emerald eyes that vanished shortly afterwards.

* * *

_"Akuma here, I'm in position over." _Came the sound of Zabuza's voice through the headsets they 'borrowed' from a group of Kiri loyalists near the border, Naruto closed his eyes as he quickly ran over the plan again, it was simple really, he was to swoop in under his genjutsu and quickly take out the spotters, hide their bodies and wait for the clear before doing the same to the guards at the door, once inside he sealed the place up and let Zabuza have his fun, Akane was to back him up during this while Haki and Guren stuck to Zabuza.

"Ash moving to target one, Senses collide and mask my movement... Shatter apart." From where Zabuza and his group were seated they couldn't hear or see anything that Naruto was doing. Akane on the other hand was being hidden by the genjutsu and it was starting to get to her, the voices that tried to lead her away from Naruto and further into the darkness, thankfully Naruto quickly finished at the first post and released it from her. "Wait here and watch my back." She gave him a quick nod thinking 'How can I watch his back when I can't see him?' Things had been strange between the two of them and it was all because of that kiss she gave him by the lake

Looking over she saw a shimmer in the sky before another guard post fell and Naruto reported in that it was time for the final step. He flashed down to the front door and blood flew everywhere paving the normally white steps. "Ash here if you can't tell my phase is done, lets get your group inside Akuma. "The door slowly opened behind him and everyone fell into play. (Zabuza's group and Akane.) Naruto made his way inside and moved over to seal the door up once everyone was in, it was pulled closed by large chains of smoke that wrapped tightly and held it in place. "No one is breaking through that."

"Good we wouldn't want our prey to get away eh Zabby-chan?" The masked man looked up and saw three people he wished he hadn't.

"Huh I guess I wasn't the first to think of the name." Naruto looked up at the tall man who shifted his very broad blade on his shoulder.

"Not a chance Gaki." Naruto shot him a cruel smirk and reached for his blade.

"Zabuza-kun, the Mizukage wants us to take you in. I will ask him to let you live if you come peacefully." A redhead woman with shark like teeth pleaded with tear filled eyes looking at the bandaged nin. Naruto looked to the one wearing a hunter-nin mask and tight clothing, his blade was slim and narrow meaning his strikes would be fast and fluid, the girl with the two daggers... she would be a pain for someone slow, and the final guy was a mystery.

"I want the masked man, he looks kind of cool." Zabuza looked between Naruto and the masked nin.

"I honestly think you were smarter when you didn't talk Crimmy."

* * *

**Year Five **

Naruto had been feeling strange lately, he noticed the silver dagger that had appeared on his arm a few days ago and had been making sure to keep it covered at all times, he did not know what it was and didn't really want to ask Akane about it after seeing how angry she had been lately. He had heard about how everything thought genjutsu was useless but he wanted to show them otherwise and use it as part of his form.

This lead to training in the art for over 2 years now, his shadow clones were working flat-out trying to learn everything they could about the subject, he had a small group working on his fuinjutsu and ninjutsu as he did not want to fall behind while he himself practiced his kenjutsu.

According to Akane his swordplay was his best trait. He dispelled the group that was working on his wind jutsu and felt the events flash through his head giving him a small headache that dissipated quickly. He channeled wind chakra in an aura around him and was surprised to see how light he felt, he flicked his wrists out and through a few punches seeing that they now had wind power behind them further increasing their strength. He quickly drew his blade and cut cleanly through a nearby tree with a pleasant smirk on his face, his hands quickly ran through seals and 10 clones of himself came into play each starting the wind aura as was the mental command.

Akane looked on with worry she had just seen what he could do with a single cut of his blade, now he was going to fight 10 people that could do that at once? They all blurred at once and cuts appeared around the land and trees scaring the earth, Akane was barely able to keep up with her eyes once again cursing this body of hers, she only just moved out of the way as one cleaved through the rock she was sitting on, another crushed the tree she had shifted to to get away from the first strike, she was now more confused at which they were going for Naruto or her. A quick handspring got her out of the way but put her in even more danger someone pushed her out of the way and took the hit for her, when she looked around and the clones started to dispel she had feared the worst, the cloud of dust that was kicked up in the attack slowly dissipated showing Naruto standing there panting, the sleeves of his top still in place while his top itself was not, he slowly brought his covered left arm up to his chest and looked down at the blood that had gotten onto his hand and sleeve he let it fall to the ground his body falling soon after, during his fall he was able to turn so that he landed on his back, strands from his tail quickly moving to his chest in an attempt to apply pressure to the wound, it was large and he knew that, it was deep to at least a few inches maybe even into his lungs, he could feel his body trying to fix him quickly. He saw a blur of red before his eyes closed him finally passing out from exhaustion.

His eyes slowly fluttered open and looked around the dark room he was in, it was best he tried to find where he was, he attempted to move his right arm but found an extra weight on it, looking down he saw the bundle of red and gave a soft smile, he gently woke her but could not make out her mumbling before her eyes shot open in surprise. "Y-you're awake?" He gave her a gentle nod. "How are you feeling? Are the bandages too tight? Are you ok? Can I get you anything?" Now that he had his hand back he placed it on top of her head and widened his smile slightly.

"Thank you for looking after me Akane, I know I can be a clutz, I guess I must have slipped again, anyway how long was I out?" She didn't know whether to be angry at him for just dismissing what had happened like it was nothing or to think that he would do it again if he had too.

"You were out for two weeks I was not able to touch your left arm though so it has been unattended for as long, I hope I did ok." She gave a quick bow, even though she hated his attitude about the whole thing she could not deny the fact that she could have died if it were not for him. He gave a small shrug.

"You are a good teacher I couldn't have you getting hurt, plus I have no idea how to treat something like this, you did great as far as I am concerned, now if I could get some space I might just freshen up a little." His tone was soft but warm to her and she gave him a smile and quickly left the room, he blushed when he noticed that he was in her room of their place in the forest. He staggered out of the room and made his way to the bathroom slowly taking the bandages off his chest and examining his still healing scar, it was definitely going to scar, he bit his thumb and ran some blood over his left sleeve watching as it dissolved into nothing, he frowned as the tattoo swirled up his arm and made its way to the scar on his chest sealing it off and making it less noticeable, it slowly receded so it just covered his arm. _"Pay the Ash Price." _Without understanding what happened Naruto drew his claws down the tattooed arm and watched as the blood entered the mark, quickly healing everything on his body, making him feel good as new.

_"Hide in plain sight." _He looked down at the mark to see it fading away into his skin he clenched his fists tight and brushed his teeth, he could not picture how bad his breath smelt at the moment. Once down he rinsed his hair out and scrubbed his left arm feeling clean and proper he opened the bathroom door for a red bundle to land in his arms, he looked down and found she was still asleep, he took her to his room and placed her in the bed tucking her in before he left to go get some food for them, he would of put her in her own bed but after someone had slept in it for that long straight it would more than likely be uncomfortable.

He returned half an hour later with a boar over his shoulder already skinned and ready to cook, it didn't take him long to find everything, infact it was all where he left it the morning of his accident, it made him wonder how much she had eaten while he was out. It was a simple meal because he was starving and could not wait too long, he quickly and quietly took it into the room he now shared with her and gently woke her to give her some food. Her red orbs met his and she had to blink a few times before she crashed into him in a hug. "Thanks, gomen for not cooking tonight." He held up a hand to cut her off.

"Eh its not a problem Akane, you were tired I understand, anyway this is the least I can do after you patched me up from me fall." He gave her a bright smile that killed her inside, why would he not admit that he saved her?

* * *

**PA: Next chapter is going to be the clash of the swordsman, can you name the ones that are going to be in it? Now before questions get asked about Naruto's arm, a little snippet of its real form will be shown to us soonish:)**


	7. What are you?

**PA: Here we go with the next installment of the Wave arc, next chapter will be finishing off the wave arc and a look into the training Kakashi gave Sasuke and Sakura while Naruto was with Zabuza.**

**TigrezzTail: The full extent of his arm won't be explained just yet, but I want to point out it is the mutation that has Akane worried not him being a part of the Ash Clan. I felt now was a good time for him to break that little barrier he had put up, I wanted it to come across as something inside of him snapping by how he talked to Inari at the time, there is a good chance I didn't push it enough there so it doesn't exactly come across as that is what happened, as for him not talking back in Konoha I am going to say... some people will be hard pressed to hear his voice.**

**Want to do a small shout out to King of Konoha for picking up my mistake so quickly when this was first posted. Thanks man.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... everytime I say that I feel a little depressed.**

* * *

Naruto let out a small breath as he parried the thrust from the masked nin, he landed a harsh kick to the man's midsection that pushed them a few feet away from each other. The masked nin gave a small chuckle and poked his sword into the ground leaning his weight against it causally. "You aren't bad Dancer, but I hope this is not all you have I am barely getting warmed up." Naruto let a small snarl out as he vanished from where he stood cutting a few strands of the nins hair before he was able to react to the movement, both watching as it fell to the ground. Dirty blonde hair laying their lifelessly.

"Kuriarare Kushimaru, one part of the Heartless Pair, I hope you don't plan to make losing your hair a habit, I can not picture you bald." Naruto heard the sound of teeth grinding and knew he had hit his mark, the masked nin with his mane of blonde hair, he gave a quick flick of his sword and the thread came out from behind it whipping around him.

A slow mist worked its way around the room, Naruto had to pause mid hand signs and frown if he channeled his lightning chakra through this mist it would hit his allies as well, it removed the genjutsu he normally casted as the only sense you could use in here was sound and he had not found a genjutsu that was effective enough for his liking in that department. A frown creeped over his face as he had the sound of something touching down lightly beside him, the room was full of allies and enemies meaning he could not strike out recklessly, a blade came through, long and thin, Naruto's frown slowly turned into a smoke as he ran his blade along the thin one with a powerful step forward, his blade coming down to the hilt and his arm snaking around the one that held the thin blade, using the momentum he still carried he slammed his forehead forward into the masked nin not at all surprised when he heard the mask crack, he jabbed the fingers of his free hand to the man's forehead and let out a small Fuuton Jutsu sighing as the thing he held turned to water from the strike.

This was becoming a bore, if the man was not going to fight him directly because of this mist then so be it. "Fuuton: Clearing Winds." Naruto's yoki fluctuated a bit and he felt a great sting in his left arm but the jutsu pulled through slowly blowing the mist away leaving the three swordsman that were not used to fighting him confused. Naruto flicked his blade around to a reverse grip and held it against his arm shimmering from view, now that the mist was gone he could use his genjutsu again, he found that the mist had blocked out the sounds from the other fights, now that it was gone there was no chance he could hear someone stepping behind him. Naruto found himself coming down with his blade on top of the Kiri swordsman, sadly he could not attack while the genjutsu was still up as it was a limitation and had to drop it just before the blade hit, it was in that short moment before the blade connected that Kushimaru was able to push the blade aside with his hand and thrust his sword forward into Naruto's left arm, Naruto's eyes shifted to the arm as the seals deactivated.

"You just made this harder for yourself Kushimaru." The smoke slowly dissipated from his arm leaving a confused and shocked Kushimaru, the first thing he noticed was that an arm should not look like that, the second was that his blade had not gone through the arm at all it had not even broken the skin it had just removed the seals, a grey chain was strung tight around the non human arm, he watched as it twitched and came to life snapping onto his thin blade, the sound of creaking and the groaning of metal brought him out of his state and he jumped back only just managing to remove his blade from the arms grasp.

"What are you?" His voice showed he was close to speechless, Naruto lifted his arm up and studied it for a moment. The tight black skin, the Aqua veins that shined through and the grey chain, all the way down to the claws on the end of fingers, he made a tight fist and his bones set into place with an audible pop. He turned his gaze from his arm over to the masked nin in front of him it turned lazy and he slouched a little swapping his sword into his left arm, the blade became wispy and demonic looking it grew fangs on the end and the chain from his arm slowly moved down and melded with the blade.

"Who knows... You brought this on yourself by the way." Naruto dragged his blade across the marble floor cutting it deep, he looked up to Kushimaru and channeled wind chakra around himself, he tilted his head to the side. "I am tired of holding back, I will try to make this quick for you." Naruto vanished but not because of a genjutsu but from pure speed, the Kiri swordsman only narrowly dodging the blade that bent the floor upwards with its strike, he flinched at the cold glare Naruto sent him, a young child should not be able to express such hatred, his eyes widened as a foot came around and collected with his arm shattering the bones that lay hidden under his skin. **_'Destroy them all, Kill...__ Feed.'_** Naruto shook his head to try to push the voices away, for his troubles he received a harsh punch to the face.

* * *

Zabuza looked across and saw that Naruto would need to be calmed down soon or this entire place was going to be leveled. He gave a small frown watching one of the legendary swordsman being played with like a rag doll, he had to thank Naruto at some point, the speed and agility behind his strikes were above Ameyuri's own making this like a warm up for the man as he danced around her. His large blade collecting into the smaller girls own and lifting her off the ground. "Ameyuri I am not going back, that man... the things he has done... I just can not forgive, I am sorry." His voice was soft and conflicted, he hadn't wanted to fight her again he would be happy fighting anyone else but her, but no they sent the one person he could never hate after him.

"Zabuza please, remember what we used to be, we can go back to that." Her voice was choked as she stumbled to her feet, she felt herself suffocating under the KI the orange haired boy was letting out, looking across at Zabuza she saw that his eyes kept darting over to the boy.

"I am sorry Ameyuri, I do not have the time for this, Crimson needs to be pulled back from the edge, either that or we are all in trouble. I will have to end this quick. I am sorry." He channeled chakra through his limbs feeling a new strength enter them, he pushed off the ground with a great force kicking up a cloud of dust behind him, he brought his large head cleaving blade down making sure to not inflict life endangering injury smashing the ground causing it to spill over her leg and trap her in place. She let out a yelp of pain as the debris crushed her leg in place forcing her to stay still.

"Why... why won't you come back to me Zabu-kun?" She tilted her head and looked at him with teary eyes, whether it was from the pain in her leg or the one in her heart he could not tell, he looked over to Guren and Haki a small smile spreading over his face. He turned back and let it fade from his face turning it into a small frown.

"Because I found where I belong Ameyuri, I am sorry I know you hate me for this but I can not let that man rule if I want to have a good life." He placed his sword on his back and turned away thinking the fight was over, he got a few steps before he felt a spike of chakra from behind him, a girl in maiden clothes had moved the rubble away from Ameyuri's leg and had already set it back in place and started to heal it.

"You belong with me Zabu-kun." Her hair shadowed her eyes as her hands clenched tight around her blades, Zabuza figured that the girl must be her partner. "I will have you, even if I have to break every bone in your body." Her head tilted up and their eyes met, his held pity while hers was a look of defiance. "Saya I need a boost." The maiden girl gave a quick nod and poured a string of Chakra into the swordsman watching as lightning came to life from the blades she held in her hand.

"I don't want to fight you Ameyuri, I do not have the time to either, please just stay down I do not want to hurt you more than I have to." His hand tightened around his blade his back was turned to her but he felt her move and quickly turned towards her as she dove forward her Kiba ready to impale him, his Executioner Edge blocking the strike he grimaced as the lightning flew across his blade and into his body giving him a mild shock, it was strong but not at the level that Naruto's was. That did not mean it hurt, it still hurt like crazy but it was not enough that he couldn't fight through it.

He gritted his teeth and pushed her blades up landing a hard kick to her ribs before quickly swinging his blade around and hitting her ribs on the other side with the blunt edge making her double over in pain, he frowned as she stumbled forward and took her stance again, he didn't miss the trickle of blood that came from her mouth or the intense coughing that she was now prone to as she tried to convince him she was still ready for more. "Stay down, please Ameyuri..." His tone was almost pleading now, the redhead stumbled forward a few more steps and Zabuza flipped backward using his blade as a spring to cover more distance, the injuries should put her down soon if she continued to be defiant.

"Saya I need you to heal me again, I need to bring him back." The maiden girl was about to move forward but she caught the stern glare from Zabuza and paused in her step. "Saya NOW!"

"Saya please we both know she will only risk her health if she keep going, I can keep putting her in that state, I will not go back, she needs to move on, it could never work between us as we are." His gaze turned down for a moment the sadness presant in his eyes ,Ameyuri widened her eyes as she fell to her knees her body finally starting to give way. "Saya it is best if you get her out of here while you still can this place will become a killing field soon enough." The spirit looked between Zabuza and Ameyuri before it gently took the girl in her arms.

"I must thank you for sparing her Zabuza-san, we will take our leave no-" She was cut off by the redhead in her arms.

"At least tell me where you are going for once, I hate not knowing." She looked so weak, so defenceless as she was now.

"I am going to help out the rebellion in anyway I can, killing Gato is a big step in the right direction." The least he could do was give her that hint, it wouldn't tell her where exactly he was going but she would know where he was.

"Saya, I think it is time we leave the mist for awhile." The maiden looked down at her for a few seconds before slowly nodding tightening her grip slightly and vanishing from the window not to far away from where they stood. Zabuza let out a tired sigh and noticed it was raining outside as the floor started to glisten under the lights from the roof. Tilting his head to the side he gave it a quick crack and looked over to where he was needed most, the girls looked like they were struggling, Naruto was well he didn't know anymore it looked like he was enjoying himself way too much now.

He looked between the two again and gave a small sigh he would need Akane's help anyway.

* * *

_**'You let one slip away?! You should have killed them all they don't deserve our mercy.'** _The voice roared as he was about to land a punch that would have put Kushimaru out of the fight, it put him off just long enough for the masked min to move and strike first knocking Naruto back and letting him slide along the floor, he could not get grip and continued to slide back until he hit the water, the sudden change put him off and he could not change he chakra fast enough to allow him to stay on his feet. His back crashed against the ground feeling the water soak into his clothes he frowned deeply and lay there thinking about the voice that had started to come back, he had thought he was rid of it, he slowly raised himself back to his feet in a motion that was not humanly possible showing the level of core strength that was unheard of. A large wave of water crashed against him knocking him back down as it attempted to drown him , he felt so alone, why was he here anyway?

_**'To kill, Kill them** **all, let none walk away from**** here'**_That voice, why was it here? He didn't need to deal with it, he felt a tingling sensation in his stomach, looking down he tilted his head to the side, when did he lose his top? Better yet why was he bleeding? He chest became tight and he tried to swim to the surface, his left arm felt strange, he didn't remember it extending to his bicep the last time he looked at it, was he losing control again? Why was he drowning? Was he going to die? **_'My turn Kit.'_**His world turned black, his senses disconnected from the world.

Kushimaru panted heavily from where he stood, watching as his partner dragged his fight to the upper level and further into the palace letting him use this room how he saw fit, he let out a sigh of relief thinking the fight was over, he noticed a black blur raising from the water and stepped a few paces back, watching as the body pulled itself of the water, its long black hair flowing down to the middle of its back, some of the raven hair covering his eyes from view as the demonic left arm twitched violently spreading further across the body making its way to the middle of his chest before it had to take pause no longer able to continue forward, it rolled it's shoulders forward cracking them into place, what disturbed the masked nin the most was the gaping hole in his stomach that was closing before his eyes strings of black covering it and repairing the internal damage done to the body.

Its eyes snapped up and met Kushimaru burning bright red as he tilted his head to the side and a sadistic smile spread across his face showing his fox-like fangs. **"My turn." **The water between the two was kicked up and Kushimaru hurriedly got out-of-the-way, sadly he was not fast enough clutching where his right arm should be in a pathetic attempt to stop the blood from pouring out, across from him the boy which he thought was dead stood their waving to him with his missing arm, the sword already plucked from it and being held by what seemed to be a black tail. He grimaced as the boy in front of him vanished again, only this time there was no kick up of water, no tell-tale signs of where he was coming from, all he felt was wire tightening around him, looking down he saw the quality of the wire and found it rather ironic he was going to die by his own blade, it became unbearably tight but he did not have the energy to struggle anymore only barely staying on his feet as he was.

He felt the wire cut through his skin and knew it was all over, he didn't even need to look to know so, once that wire built up momentum it was nigh impossible to stop it, the black-haired body reveled in the spray of blood as it drenched him and soaked the water red, he licked his blood covered hand with grace as he strode along the water heading to the stairs where the echo's of a fight were still being sounded. His still human hand now clean took a grasp of his spoils of war the wire from the blade wrapping painfully tight around his arm causing him to let out a small growl as he paused in his step, he sneered viciously at the blade finding it relax slightly and continued on his way, coming in to what seemed to be a second hall of kinds he found the fight he was looking for.

He let his KI flood the room causing everyone to stop what they were doing, he saw the final of the three swordsman's one visible eye go wide clearly taking notice of the blade in his right hand. The body pointed the blade at the man as its tail whipped around in excitement. **"MINE." **He exclaimed his eyes taking a sinister appearance as his mouth stretched into an evil grin that threatened to split his face.

"You killed Kushimaru?" It was more of a statement then a question, that man never went anywhere without his blade. "I will make sure you suffer for his death." His own smile slowly spread across his face as he swung his sword, exploding tags shifting into place along the blade.

Naruto dashed forward and hit his blades against the exploding one taking the pain and embracing it flicking his head around to feel the explosion as much as possible, the flames died down around him and his grin managed to get even wider looking at the disbelieving look on his opponent's face as Naruto's own stitched itself back together. Zabuza's group and Akane looked in shock at what was happening, they had tried to find a way past that sword, Naruto now stood right in the mans face his sword still needed time to reload, Naruto had him right where they were trying to get him.

The black-haired teen smashed his head against the older swordsmans repeatedly eventually tearing the skin away from their foreheads, Naruto licking the blood that came from his own before starting the process again slowly bringing his right hand up, his tail snapped up and wrapped around the mans neck, Naruto butted his head against the man with the eyepatch again adding more force behind his blow sending the man stumbling back, Naruto's tail loosening its grip showing the wire wrapped around his neck he tilted his head to the side and laughed like a made man giving a sharp tug on the blade sending the mans head to the ground with a sickening crunch. The sound of someone stumbling behind him brought him out of his madman like state, his cackling stopped and he slowly turned around to face the group. **"See ya." **He gave a small wave before his body collapsed on the ground, his hair slowly turned back to orange, his tail receding and his fox-like features diminishing, the group stared at his arm for some time wishing to see it regress like everything else, it did in fact but stopped at his shoulder, the aqua veins visible across his bicep.

The swords that he had held tight dropped to the ground from his hands, the demonic blade turning back into his orange katana, Akane ran over and did a quick scan of his body frowning all the while. "He is stable..." Zabuza looked towards her in question.

"I sense a but coming." He stated simply waiting for her to continue.

"But most of his internal organs are brand new, in other words his body will be weak at the moment." The bandaged nin looked at her like she was an idiot.

"Weak my ass Akane did you not just see what he did to Jinpachi?" She shot him a glare that caused him to pause in his step forward.

"I know what I said Zabuza, his body is weak, it is stable for the moment but I can not promise anything in this kind of environment, I can not work on him here." The man put his hands up defensively and took a few steps back from the redhead who went into protect mode over the knocked out Naruto.

"Guren can I trust you to guard Akane on her way back to a better place to treat him?" He asked the blue haired woman who looked between the eyes of everyone in the group before giving a stiff nod, the redhead gently picked up Naruto bridal style so as to not disturb his body too much, she gave a quick nod when she was good and the two left down the stairs. "Ok Haki we should have a clear run to Gato and his money... let's go. Those three will be fine." He strode further into the mansion cutting down those in his path while Haki kept his flanks guarded.

The girls looking after Naruto were currently doing their best to keep their dinner down, as they slowly stepped across the bloody water of the lower floors, little pieces of flesh floating around them, their pace quickened wanting to get out of the mess as soon as possible, Akane kept looking down at the boy in her arms not able to believe that he had done all of this, sure he was cold and maybe even a bit overzealous in some of his tasks but he was not this bloodthirsty plus there was that weird regression thing that happened, she let out a low groan and sped up again making sure not to go to fast as to not disturb him but fast enough to get out of their before anything happened.

* * *

Kakashi was woken by someone knocking at the door to the house, it was soft only loud enough that he would hear it, he slowly got up from the mattress he was laying on and moved to the door a Kunai held tight behind his back as he twisted the door handle opening it just enough asking who it was and what they were doing here. "Its me Red, we ran into a bit of trouble helping out Zabuza and I need to have Naruto in a safe place asap." There was a tone of panic in her words, that much he could figure out, he slowly opened the door wider and saw the blood covered Naruto, he took notice of his arm too, it was something he hadn't seen before and would ask questions later but for now he needed to help out Naruto. He looked fine no injuries but that arm was trouble, he quickly ran up the stairs and felt the need to curse seeing Sakura in the room Akane had claimed as theirs, he woke her up and quickly shooed her away before walking down the stairs again and telling her that it was safe, she relayed the message to someone outside who slowly entered the house as well, rounding behind Akane as per her masters orders.

"Do not attack her kakashi, she is here to help me with Naruto until Zabuza finishes up, at which time the man will be coming here himself, he was worried about what happened and sent Guren in his stead for the moment, they are not here to fight us and I am sure they will help us in our mission after how tonight went." Guren nodded along with the frantic words of Akane who brushed past the silver-haired jounin and stormed up the stairs not even sparing a glance at Sakura who peaked her head out of the room, Kakashi quickly ordered the genin back to bed while he went and fetched a bowl of water to help clean Naruto off, it was the least he could do now seeing his student in this state scared him.

Kakashi came back into the room washcloth in his hand and a large bowl, they were both promptly snatched away from him and he was pushed out of the room. "You will get in my way here, just make sure no one comes in." She hissed out to the jounin before closing the door on him, he was speechless for the action, he could write her up for insubordination from the act... a quick flash of grinning Naruto ran through his mind and knew it would not do anything to help the tense relationship the two held. Plus was it even possible to do that wasn't she Naruto's spirit or something? The thoughts were tossed aside as two sets of footsteps slowly made their way to his ears, he looked up and saw two people covered in blood, Zabuza and his partner he wondered just how long he had been lost in thought outside of the door.

"How is he?" The gruff voice he normally held was gone, this one was worried, sadly all Kakashi could give him was a shrug, Zabuza walked past him and knocked on the door hearing the storming footsteps of someone inside, the door was slammed open by his apprentice, he tilted his head to the side as they were ushered inside, Kakashi looked at her hopefully for a moment only to have the door closed on him again, thinking about it, he was now in the same position as Naruto, it was safe to say that it sucked. Minutes turn to an hour, he was let in the room and first noticed how pained Naruto looked, he seemed perfectly fine on the outside but it was the inside that mattered most.

"He should be fine for now, we will need someone to keep watch of him constantly, I believe me and Guren should take shifts." Akane saw Haki about to protest but quickly cut in. "Haki I know you want to help too but if you are guarding him then you can not be too far from Zabuza, I know it will hurt but you are best staying with your partner while we look after Naruto after tonight I do not know what state he will be in when he wakes up." Haki didn't like it but she could see the logic behind Akane's words she gave a tired sigh that was followed by a nod.

"What actually happened?" Zabuza turned his head to loo at the silver-haired jounin and gave a small smile.

"Naruto killed two of the Seven Swordsman, Gato is dead, I got my payout plus some money for the rebellion while Naruto gets his share for helping out, I will have to talk to Mei when I see her next 'bout Kushimaru's sword, it is tradition that the killer claims the blade, that is how so many of our swords had gone missing over time only for us to get them back at some point or another, it is an old lore but one that is still followed today." Zabuza stroked his chin and shifted the blade on his back remember taking out the previous owner, ahh good times. "Agreed you and Guren should take shifts watching Crimmy while me and Kakashi watch the bridge builder, I think the worst we could have is some bandits that haven't gotten the news that their pay-day is dead. It shouldn't be too hard a work out but it would still be best if we were there."

Kakashi put a hand on his hip. "I think we should organise this in the morning between everyone, I know you don't like the others Red but I think they deserve a say in this, we are a team after all." Instantly she wanted to snort but she remembered that Naruto needed a team at the moment, she gave an exasperated sigh.

"I am still not used to the idea of working with people other than Naruto, normally there isn't a plan of action unless it is a battle, he kind of just lets the mission play out as he goes or so it looks." She kept stealing looks at Naruto's arm trying to determine if there had been any change, she was said to say there hadn't been.

* * *

**Year 6 **

This year Naruto had added what he had done for the last five on top of going through Kitsune history, he was thankful that Akane didn't question him to much on the matter and merely pushed it off as him wanting to know about what he had become, if she had payed a large amount of detail to which areas he was studying, he could always play it down to it, right now he was searching through scrolls and books like their was no tomorrow looking for the symbol that had made itself known on his arm, he found it connected to Ash, he had no clue what that meant also why wasn't there anything further about this symbol it was like someone had scrubbed all traces of this Ash from history, he flicked through found a heap on fire, water, air, forest, earth and lightning Kitsune but nothing about them related to Ash, he had skimmed through fire and found nothing, if he came out and asked Akane it could prove to spit back in his face and that was something he really didn't want.

_'Ash is so easy to hide, it scatters in the wind.' _A voice played through his head, he tried to shake the thoughts away only to release he had spent too long sifting through these books, his clones were out training while he had turned into a book-worm, he needed a break. He stood and stretched his body feeling it pop into place before letting loose a tired yawn He moved towards the makeshift door of their home and squinted his eyes at the bright sunlight. "Oh you're up." A voice full of surprise spoke beside him, looking over he saw Akane sitting on a small rock watching his clones train. "I thought you had gone back to bed after last night."

Last night? He mused to himself before remembering the nightmare that tore him from sleep, he had been clammy and pale when he rinsed his face in the mirror checking every inch of his skin to make sure it was still there, it had been painful something he hoped he would never experience. "No, I was just reading on the Kitsune clans, seems I spent a fair chunk of time doing so as well... how are the clones coming along?" His question was purely asked to hear her voice again, after last night he had felt so alone, he needed something to hang onto whether it be a foe or not.

"Hmmm, if they keep this up you may prove to be a challenge yet. What clan caught your eye?" It was a strange question he thought, what was she training to figure out? What clan had claimed him? Claiming someone... it was an odd way to put it but that is what happened, you were not born into a clan not as far as the Kitsune were concerned no the clans picked you, you had no say in the matter and neither did your parents.

"They all seem to be interesting, do you think I will ever be claimed?" He asked making sure to add a hint of sadness to his voice, he would need to be good at acting if he was to be a shinobi, he saw Akane thinking his question over for a few moments.

"I am surprised you haven't already but then again you would have a mark on your forearm like I do." She held up her arm as an example it showed a small flame, Naruto did the same to her his showing nothing, his mark was strange it would vanish when it was not needed. "Maybe they are still trying to figure out where to put you... or maybe they don't want a bar of you because of me, either way it is not your fault." It came across as an offhand comment but he saw the small look of pain that shot through her eyes, why could she not just be honest with him.

"I wonder if I will..." His voice was a whisper as he moved deeper into the forest putting some distance between himself and her, he covered himself in a genjutsu before sitting on a rock and staring intently at his arm the small dagger taking its shape. "Why can I not find any trace of you?" He questioned his arm finding the whole thing to be rather stupid now that he thought about it. _'The greatest secrets are always the hardest to find Kit.' _It was strange, he was talking to this brand/tattoo/marking on his arm, was he actually going insane and this was not here to begin with? _'I am actually real you idiot. Anyway goodbye for now.' _

It was something he would just toss aside, he guessed he would find out eventually.

* * *

**PA: And it is done, it is getting late here so I shall leave it here for tonight, R&R please, questions are welcome or even if you just need to me to clear something up because I may have rushed in explaining something, until next time See ya.**


	8. End of Wave

**PA: The final chapter of the Wave arc is here.**

**thor94: The voice and who it is will be explained in the coming chapters, it is something I came up with to compensate for not having the Kyuubi in him, it too like the Kyuubi prays on his emotions and is the reason he lost control and went on a rampage, Naruto will be strong, but not godlike in strength his skills are pretty much going to stay where they are until the time skip.**

**I also would like to thank all of those that are still reviewing this story, I do read all of them and try to answer them as best I can.**

**Now I was asked about a timeline,**

**Naruto age 4- Recedes into the forest of death and receives training from the Kyuubi for 6 years.**

**Naruto age 10- Attends the academy for less than a day before graduating from his display of skills and knowledge, he is then taken underwing by Kakashi, only for them to be separated less than a month later by order of the civilian council, before they separate they are given one last mission together, this one goes down the drain very quickly and nearly gets Naruto and Akane both killed, Kakashi hides the fact that Naruto is able to turn into a fox-like creature from the village as a last grace to the child.**

**Naruto after separation to rejoining his squad- Kakashi came by when he could to teach him more about being a Shinobi, this was found out by the village and quickly shut down as they wanted to keep Kakashi 'pure' for when he taught the Uchiha. After Kakashi stopped coming around Naruto was given a singular S-rank that has not been talked about yet, this is when the mutation on his arm started to form.**

**Almost a year after the mutation came about Naruto found Haku with the help of Zabuza a rouge nin that he had ran into numerous times over the past two years, they had become friends and rivals to a degree, both now having someone new to live with and train left, Naruto heading back to Konoha where he and Akane adopted Haku, training him for a few months before Naruto was placed onto Team 7.**

**Xunzar: Is that what you were looking for of sorts or would you like me to go into further detail?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto bolted upright from his bed grimacing at the pain in his stomach. "I wouldn't move around too much Crimmy, Red said some shit about brand new organs or something, take it easy for awhile." The blonde haired teen looked over to his left seeing Zabuza leaning against the wall with a book in hand.

"Didn't take you to be the type that read." Zabuza merely showed the cover of the book and all became explained to the blonde. "Should've known you were a pervert." He let out a deep yawn and stretched himself out. "So how long was I out for this time?" Zabuza tilted his head from side to side as he turned a page.

"Three, four days maybe, first time I get to watch over you and ya wake up, guess I just have the magic touch eh?" Naruto just shook his head at the man and flipped his legs off the bed, looking at his left arm he gave a frown seeing it's influence had extended further. Zabuza saw what he was looking out and let out a small sigh. "Everyone is wondering 'bout that arm of yours gaki, I think you should fill 'em in soon." He licked his finger through the bandages around his mouth and used it to turn the page.

Naruto quickly threw on some clothing and looked at his attire, simple black and silver sweats and a grey muscle top, it would have to do for now. "Where are the others?" Zabuza looked up from his book and was a little surprised that Naruto was already ready to go again, his gear strapped to his person and his katana leaning to his right hand as it hung from the small of his back.

"Outside training, Akane did want to know as soon as your were up so why don't you go surprise her." He gave a small smile under his makeshift mask of bandages and put the orange book away in his kunai pouch, bouncing his weight off of the wall and opening the door for Naruto. "What's it going to be this time?" He looked to Naruto who gave a small grin and vanished from sight. "You and that jutsu." Zabuza moved down the stairs and noticed no one was home, he opened the door outside and the sound of metal clashing could be heard, he saw Akane sparing against Haki and had to fight the urge to laugh, this was going to be good.

A smirk ran across Haki's face as she caught Zabuza's sign to slow it down a little, Akane came in with a right hook only to stumble forward and look around. "Hey Red you ok?" Akane knew for a fact she didn't trip on anything. Quickly get back up to her feet she set her stance and let her claws grow a little longer.

"Come on, just cause I fell doesn't mean you have to hold back Haki." The snow maiden gave a small shrug and through a quick out to the kitsune watching as said kitsune was lifted from the ground and spun around, Naruto got tired of the game quickly and dropped the jutsu showing himself and promptly getting slapped across the face. "You idiot, the first thing you do when you get up after 4 days of being out cold is to jump into the middle of a spar and start playing around like it is some game?" She looked at him for a few seconds but let out a small sigh at his smile. "It's good to see you on your feet again. You seen the others yet?"

Naruto gave a quick look around but ended up giving a shake of his head. "Nah only just got up, Zabuza said you wanted to know as soon as I was up so, here I am." He stretched his arms out wide for a moment and heard the clinking of the chain on his left causing him to frown. "I really need to fix that." He brought the arm up to eye level and started poking and prodding it. It let a low hiss out at him and his eyes went wide. "Arm's are not supposed to do that right?" The people around him shook their heads with their jaws hanging ajar.

"Naruto what did you do?" His redheaded partners voice cut through the tension like it was butter against a warm knife. Naruto franticly raised his arms in defence shaking them back and forth.

"I guess it is just moody, maybe it's having its time of month... you know how that is right Akane?" The bystanders thought the girl was practicing a new jutsu from the shade of red she was able to turn, she quickly closed the distance and smashed him over the head, only for him to shatter into ash and form again behind her. "Kami I love genjutsu." He gave a small chuckle looking at his flustered partner.

"You don't joke about stuff like that you idiot!" She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, slowly turning to face him. "Is your arm ok or not? And please no joking around this time." She pleaded to him he let out a small sigh and roughed up her hair with his good arm.

"It is no more of a bother than normal." He gave her his trademark smile making her heart melt, she wanted to lunge forward and cuddle into him right then and there, she had an appearance to keep up though, plus she still needed to know more.

"That doesn't exactly help me you know, the mutation, I don't know that much about it, but it looks like you have been marked twice. I think we are in over our head with this." Her frown was deep and Naruto wanted to remove it, doing the only thing he could think of at the time, he moved forward and wrapped his arms around her bringing her in close. She rested her head in the crook of his neck listening to the blood flow through his body at a healthy rate, her eyes were closed tight as she took in his smell, earth mixed with blood, it was always the same, yet she could never get enough of it.

"We have been through some tough times Akane, I don't doubt this will be different, but together we will be able to work through it like we always do." Her eyes slowly opened and looked up at his smile, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead and slowly released his hold, it was much to earlier if you asked a certain redhead. "Now I think I should let Kakashi know that I am awake." That point would become mute as Kakashi dropped in not to far away with the Uchiha in toe.

He felt the anger of Akane spike and took her hand in his giving it a tight squeeze. "It is good to see you up and about Naruto, how was your time off?" The orange-haired teen tilted his head to the side giving Kakashi his best impersonation of an 'are you kidding me' look.

"Was peachy Kakashi, I was galavanting in meadows and pastures filled to the brim with wild flowers and even wilder women." His tone was dry as the sarcasm oozed out of his mouth.

"Really?" He didn't even dignify his instructor with a response and took them all in.

"Where is Sakura and Guren?" Zabuza moved forward and cleared his throat.

"They are watching the bridge builder." He tried to keep his voice as straight as possible, he too thought Sakura was a joke for a kunoichi, part of him hoped Guren would be able to talk some sense into the girl otherwise he feared for Naruto's sanity.

* * *

"Why are you a kunoichi?" Sakura looked across to Guren, it was a strange question for the girl to ask. When she thought about it though she couldn't give an answer, Guren saw the confusion on her face and let out a tired sigh. "If you don't have a reason you should give up, those without reason for what they do never last long in this world." Her tone was cold and she kicked a small pebble from the nearly finished bridge.

"Whats your reason?" The pinkette asked, not entirely sure if she would like the answer or not.

"I was like you, didn't have a reason. Thats why I left my village, cut all ties and I refuse to wear its headband. After some time I met a small child called Haku, within him I found my way of ninja, to protect those I care about, now Haku live with Naruto and receives training from him while I run with Zabuza and keep him out of trouble." She gave a small laugh and looked down at the water below. "Sometimes I think it is too much for me to handle on my own. Let alone when him and Naruto get together, things just always seem to go downhill."

Guren let out a sigh and looked up at the clouds forming above them, it was going to rain soon, that much was certain. "But they make it through by some miracle each time, every time they do their bond gets stronger and their drinking gets worse." She wrapped her arms around herself and let a smile grace her pale face. "I wouldn't trade them for the world though, even though I don't see him that often I still consider Naruto a friend."

Sakura looked within herself, she had heard what Guren had said, without a reason for being a kunoichi she would not find the work pleasant. "I-I have no answer, I guess I am still looking for my reason."

"Some friendly advice, if you hold Naruto back... Red will kill you." Sakura shot her head up to look at Guren who gave a small giggle. "Maybe not that drastic but you will know she is unhappy with you." Guren hummed a small tune to herself and sat down dangling her legs over the side of the bridge swinging them back and forth in the gentle breeze.

Sakura let out a small groan and took a seat next to the bluenette. "So what do you think I should do?" Guren looked at her for a few moments before letting out a small chuckle.

"Become a kunoichi with a reason, leave this stupid fangirl thing you are doing in the past and become something you and your team can be proud of." Guren brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear and gave a smile feeling the wind around them change. "And never give up, no matter how hard it gets keep on living. See ya." She pushed off from where she was and dived down into the water below only the tiniest of splashes showing that she had ever been there to start with.

"She is right, when you give up... that is when you will hate yourself more than anything." She jumped up in shock , she would have fallen off the edge if he hadn't of shot his hand out to hold her in place. "Also you should be more careful of your surroundings. I don't think you can incase your body in chakra fast enough to survive that fall." He gave her a light smile and slowly let go of her letting her sink a little on the ledge.

"I guess you are up then. Are you feeling ok?" A quick nod was her response as his smile widened.

"Do you want to be a kunoichi?" His voice turned cold and put her on edge.

"My parents-" His voice quickly cut her off.

"Thats not what I asked Sakura. Do _you _want to be a Kunoichi?" His red eyes tearing straight through her emerald green.

"I think I do." He tilted his head to the side at her response, it was such a simple answer for him.

"If you truly do, meet me at my house once we get back, I will turn you into a ninja." Her eyes widened as he vanished right in front of her without a trace.

* * *

The rest of the mission went off without any major issues, there was the odd bandit every now and again that would try to attack the people of wave, they were quickly disposed of though, the two groups now stood at the end of the bridge looking across at one another. "I guess we are parting ways again for now Crimmy." Said orange haired boy gave a small nod.

"For now, I have not forgotten my promise to you Zabuza, I will help when the time comes. Who knows maybe I will have some friends to help me out by then too." He gave a small chuckle and waved to his friend. "See ya Demon."

"See ya Dancer."

* * *

**PA: Yes I know it is short, but I felt it was better just to wrap things up here rather than starting something new only to finish it early and leave you guys on the edge.**


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